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THE 




STRUGGLES 



FOR 



LIFE AND HOME 



IN THE 



North -West. 



BY A PIONEER HOMEBUILDER. 



LIFE, 1865-1889. 



T 



Geo. w. Kranck. 





NEW YORK: 

I. GoLDMANN, Steam Printer, 7, 9 & ii New Chambers St. ®^ 



1890. 



'gj^JJnrv.. 



r^ 



-^<^' 







g> Copyright, 1890, by GEO. W. FRANCE. 



PREKACK. 



I do not claim for this book any literary merit, except that 
borrowed or quoted from others, for, when Gushing could 
mark 5000 mistakes in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (say- 
ing that for the size of the book it had as few errors as could 
be expected), and when newspaper and other writers have to 
browse so largely from the genius and labor of others, that 
editorials are frequently copied bodily as their own (so that it 
is often difficult to know who produced some piece of intellect- 
ual work and the gems of genius that they print), it would 
therefore be presumptuous for an unlettered homebuilder on 
the border, alone to attempt anything very fine and glittering 
in building his book ; and though the most practical, valuable 
and expensive education in the world is that gotten by struggling 
hard and long against fiends and fate, for life, liberty and home, 
such a life permits of no leisure or condition of the mind for 
the culture of any of its latent literary genius. 

While the mere kid-gloved hired critic will smile over the 
stacks of humbug effusions of his professional brethren, he will 
sneer at this ill-favored thing ; and ring-black-legs will detest 
it, as they do truth itself and equality before the law. But 
when my case was so cruelly lied -abtTtrtSfidT was so persistently 
and corruptly held in a secret bastile to be tortured, looted and 
maligned, (as I found it to be the case with others also), and 
was always denied any hearing, or defense, or trial, I was left 
no alternative by the mongrel gang, but was forced to write my 
life, and theirs also —wherein it imperils the life, liberty and 
homes of the people. 

(3) 



4 Preface. 

As to its truth, every point and assertion of mine is (in one 
place and another) shown to be so very evidently and positively 
true, that none but brazen members or tools of the black con- 
spiracy will ever question it. 

In the language of Josephus : " Some apply themselves to 
this part of learning to show their great skill in composition, 
and that they may therein acquire a reputation for speaking 
finely ; others there are who of necessity and by force are 
driven to write history, because they were concerned in the 
facts, and so cannot excuse themselves from committing them 
to writing for the advantage of posterity. Nay, there are not 
a few who are induced to draw their historical facts out of 
darkness into light, and to produce them for the benefit of the 
public, on account of the great importance of the facts them- 
selves with which they have been concerned .... I was forced 
to give the history of it because I saw that others perverted 
the truth of those actions in their writings. However, I will 
not go to the other extreme out of opposition to those men who 
extol the oppressors, nor will I determine to raise the actions 
of my own too high; but I will prosecute the actions of both 
parties with accuracy. Yet shall I suit my language to the 
passions I am under, as to the affairs I describe, and must be 
allowed to indulge in some lamentations upon the miseries 
undergone by my own 

"But if any one makes an unjust accusation against me 
when I speak so passionately about the tyrants, or the robbers, 
or sorely bewail the misfortune of our country, let him indulge 
my affections herein .... Because it had come to pass, that we 
had arrived at a higher degree of felicity than others, and yet 
at last fell into the sorest calamities again .... But if any one 
be inflexible in his censures of me, let him attribute the facts 
themselves to the historical part, and the lamentations to the 
writer himself only .... And I have written it down for the sake 



Preface. 5 

of those that love truth, but not for those that please them- 
selves with fictitious relations." 

" Yes, I have lost the loved, the dear ! 

Yes, I have wept the bitter tear ! 

Have passed misfortune's darkest hour — 

Have known and felt the Tempter's power — 

Have bowed to scorn, unloved, alone, 

Longing for Friendship's cheering tone ! 

Unhappiness ! I know thee, then — 

So can I help my fellow-men ! — Public Opinion. 

G, W. K. 



"If all the scoundrels who now bask in the smiles of San Francisco 
society were to receive their just deserts for their infamous deeds, the 
accommodations at San Quentin and Folsom would be entirely too re- 
stricted. 

We have before taken occasion to define the crime of "personal jour- 
nalism." It is never perpetrated except against a rich scoundrel. A 
journal may with perfect safety hold up to scorn the actions of water 
front bummers, or the despised hoodlum. Turn to your i3aper any 
morning and evening and see how oftf^n crime in low places is exposed 
and made odiotis in a hundred different ways. Does any one sujjijose 
that distinguished lawyers would be found to rail at the practice so long 
as it was confined within these limits? Bah! The inquiry excites a smile 
of derision. Any Tom, Dick or Harry in the city might be mentioned, 
and columns of contem^jt and derision hurled at them without a jjrotest 
being raised. But, as we have said before, let a man Avith a million or 
two of money commit the most unpardonable outrages, and be referred 
to ever so gently, and the pack start out in full cry yelping "personal 
journalism." 

Without personal journalism vice and roguery would be sure to get 
the ui^ijer hand in modern times. Personal journalism is the bulwark 
reared against its encroachment. Personal joiarnahsm is only another 
term for the ' ' rascal's scourge. " It will be a sorry day for society if the 
assassin's pistol or the rich man's coin ever prove effective enough to stop 
the hand engaged in the work of making crime odious by pointing out to 
the public their enemies. Crime cannot be checked with a parable. Its 
perpetrators must be held up to public scorn." 

San Fi-ancisco "Chronicle." 



"JValla Walla, Washington, 
Nov. 2ofh, 1889. 



TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:— 

" I have been personally acquainted loith Mr. Geo. W. France 
for many years, and know his general reputation and standing in 
this State to he good, and ivhile it is true that he loas at one time 
convicted of murder in the second degree, it is now generally believed 
that he committed the homicide in necessary self-defence, and is 
innocent of any crime whatever, I take pleasure in hear- 
ing testimony to his uniform good character, both before and since 
this unfortunate occurrence, as an honest, ^ipright, orderly and 
law-abiding citizen. 

THOS. H. BRENTS." 

[Representative in Congress for two terms from Washington Terriiorv | 



(7) 



LIST OK ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE, 

Author's Portrait - - Frontispiece. 

Oil Works ------- 29 

View of Salt Lake City, Utah - - - 43 

The Mormon Temple, Etc. - - - - - 49 

PYRA.M1D Lake, Utah . .... 59 

Los Angeles, Cal. , from the Hill - - 67 

Mexican Herder ... - . - 69 

Main Street from Temple Block, Los Angeles - - 71 
Chinese Quarter, Interior of Chinese Temple 

(Josh House), Los Angeles - - - 73 

Tropical Plants and Historical Buildings - - 75 

Pi-Ute iNDLANf Camp, Nevada - - - - 79 

A Canyon - - - - - - - 101 

Shoshore Falls, Snake River, Idaho, 2G0 Feet High 103 

"I Hauled "Wood and Rails from the Blue Mountains" 113 

Making Clapboards ..... 117 

MlTiTNOma Falls, Columbia River, Oregon - - 125 

My First Outfit ------ 131 

My First House ...... 139 

Land Office Receipt ..... 144 

United States Land Patent .... 149 

An Indian Village ..... 157 

An Indlin Massacre - - - - - 179 

School Land Lease ..... 216 

School Land Receipt - - - - - 217 

Defending My Life and Home - - . - 233 

The Seatco Bastile - . - . - 249 

A Sick Prisoner ------ 271 

Prisoners at the Bastile Going to Work — Drunken 

Guard -..-.. 277 

Penalty for Exposing the Tortures of the Secret 

Bastile 283 

City of Sitka, Alaska . . . . . 459 



CONTKNTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Striking out from home when a boy. — My object. — Ho ! For 
the Oil Regions in Pennsylvania. — My Chum. — Great Excitement. 
— Oil City flooded. — "Coal Oil Johnny." — Tools, etc., used in bor- 
ing for oil. — All about finding oil. — And what the oil is. — My ex- 
perience for about a year. 

CHAPTER II. 

Leaving the Oil Regions for a good time " Out West." — A 
period of travel, etc., of four-and-a-half months to the Missouri 
River — Then crossing the plains to Salt Lake with wagon train 
in 60 days. — Our train, etc.; my team, etc.; first camp in a storm. 
— Fording the Platte river with its quicksand bottom ; big teams, 
etc. My first drink ; delusion in distance ; game, etc. — Freighting; 
life and government on the plains. — A comprehensive account of 
the region from the Missouri River to Salt Lake Valley. 



CHAPTER III. 
Salt Lake City and Valley. — Salt Lake ; climate and bathing. 
— Remained a month. — Then made a trip of a month on the plains. 
Caught in a blizzard. — Sixty-two frozen mules for breakfast, Oct. 
14th. — A rough tramp in the snow, 180 miles back to Salt Lake. 
— Dreaming of home. — As to the hardships of trains snow-bound 
in the mountains. - Work for a Mormon dignitary. — The ''Mighty 
Host of Zion." — How they whipped Johnson's U. S. Army in 1861, 
etc., etc. — Mountain Meadow massacre, etc., etc. — Leave Salt Lake 
on horse-back for St. George, 350 miles south; takes a month. 
— Mormon farms and villages ; their system of settlement, etc. — 
Climate, soil, mountains, etc. — A month in St. George as "Dodge's 
Clerk." — On an Indian raid. — Made a trip to the extreme southern 
settlements. — What for f— Cotton country.— Mountain of rock 
salt.— A true, comprehensive description of the Mormons; how 
they live and deal with each other and with Gentiles; their 
religion and government; as they really are in practice; their 
virtues, crimes and danger. 



(IK 



12 Contents. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Travelers I met in Utah.— Leave Utah for the Los Angeles, 
Cal., country.— The company I travel with. — Danites.— The In- 
dians on the road. — A Mormon "miracle," — Indian dialect. — Sand 
storm. A mine in the desert. — The region from St. George to 
California. — Arizona. — San Bernardino, Los Angeles, and that 
country. — Climate, soil, people and business in 1867 and 1884. — 
Land, titles, etc. 



CHAPTER V. 

Leave Los Angeles for a new mining camp in Nevada. — The 
stock of a train eaptui'ed by Indians. — ''Death Valley." — Eighty- 
seven families, stock, etc., perish. — The surrounding region and 
its products. — How teamsters are revenged. — Comprehensive des- 
cription of the mining camp, etc. — HuiTah ! Huri'ah ! ! We have 
struck it. Hurrah ! 1 ! — A big Indian. — How Mining Co's. officials 
steal.— Indian and white man hung, etc. — The mode of govern- 
ment and trial; wages, living, business, etc. — The geological 
formation of mineral lodes, veins, fissures, etc., and placer mines. 
Prospecting for and locating claims.— The right time to seU, etc. 
— Why mines are guarded with rifles. — How stock companies 
operate. — Why newspaper accounts of mines are not reliable. — 
The real prices paid for mines. - How stock, etc., is made to sell. 
— One-and-a-half year's experience. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The mines, continued. — Exciting reports from a distant moun- 
tain. — I outfit one of a party to go.— What he wrote me. — "Ho ! 
for White Pine ! "—The richest silver mine ever discovered. — The 
pure stuff. — I go, too. — Visit another camp on the way.— My horse 
and saddle "borrowed."- A big camp ablaze with excitement. — 
Belief that the stuff could be found anj^where by digging. — The 
many thousand "mines." — "Brilliant schemes." Blubbering in- 
vestors from the States. — Life : gambling, drinking, business and 
damnation. — Making big sales, etc.; the outcome. — Another year 
and a half of lively practical experience in the mines. — The many 
smaller camps in the surrounding region. — Virginia City and Gold 
Hill. — The great Comstock lode. — The Bonanza and other great 
stock gambling mines that we read of. 



Contents. 13 

CHAPTER VII. 
Building the U. P. and Central railroads. — A general rugged 
prospecting tour of seven mouths in Nevada, Idaho and Montana. 
— On to Washington Territory. — The country, climate, soil, 
scenery, fishing, hunting, incidents, etc., etc. — Finding the true 
source of the fine gold in the Snake and Columbia rivers. — The 
more famous of the Idaho Placer mines. 



CHAPTER VIIL 

A comprehensive description of the Walla Walla country; 
soil, climate and productions and the lay of the land. — Hire out on 
a farm for two months.— The secret of success and failure in 
government and coi-poration contracts. — Secret intrigue at military 
posts, etc. — Experience in work in the mountains.— Locate a land 
claim and get married — A year's experience. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Brief description of Eastern and Western Washington and of 
the various sections in each ; their industries and inducements, 
advantages and disadvantages. 



CHAPTER X. 

History of the settling of the Walla Walla country. — Report 
of government experts as to the soil. — Packing to the mines of 
Idaho, etc. — The market and opportunities. — The outlook in 1870 
when I landed there. — The country grasped by its throat; the 
government prostituted. — 1000 miles of river navigation to the 
sea strangled, and the tribute that was levied. — The result. — The 
promised railroad, etc. — First land claim I located. — Life in the 
beginning of a home ; dangers and draw-backs. — My first outfit. — 
Sell my claim ; hunt for and locate another in a new wild section; 
description of it and the locality. — My Indian neighbors; how 
they treated the first white men they ever saw. — A homebuildei*'s 
land rights and what he must necessarily endure in carving a 
home in a wilderness.— Warned of the perplexities, conspiracies 
and treason to be planted in the way. — How we started out to 
build a good and spacious home; our first house, etc. — Travelling, 
moving and camping in the west.— 25 miles to blacksmith's shop, 



14 Contents. 

etc. — The " Egypt " for supplies. — Land claims located about us 
and abandoned, are re-located by others time and again. — My first 
crop; big, black, hungry crickets, one hundred bushels to the 
acre. — So that we are left alone in the '' France Settlement." — The 
section surveyed and I " file my claim."— Raise hogs; the result; 
also get a band of cattle; experience on the range. -Getting roads 
opened, etc. — First railroad in Eastern Washington. - Struggling 
for a livelihood and home ; how I managed. — Other new settle- 
ments and people; how they done. — ''Land hunters." — "Prove 
up "; pay for and get patent for pre-emption claim and take a 
homestead claim adjoining. — Copy of United States patent. — How 
we just loped along and ahead of the country. — It settles up. — 
New county; towns, etc., built; settlers swindled; build school 
house, etc., etc. 



CHAPTER XL 

An Indian war. — Neighboring Indians go on the warpath ; the 
reason. -Description of their domain; their horses and cattle. — 
A job on Uncle Sam. — How they plead for their country. —"Earth 
governed by the sun," etc. — Whom they killed. — How they marched 
and fought. — Settlers either stampede or gather in fortresses. — 
Efforts made by men to have other tribes break out. — For plunder. 
— What an Indian must do to become a citizen. — How Indian 
claims are jumped. — What the Indian was before the advent of 
the Whites. — Their government, pui'suits, etc.^-What fire-arms 
and whiskey done for them. — How they started fire, lived and 
died ; their religion. — How to improve the Indian. — "A cry of the 
soul." 



CHAPTER XII. 
Indians, continued. — Joseph. — White Bird. — Looking glass 
and Indians generally. — The White Bird fight. — These Indians in 
early days ; their flocks, herds and fine farms. — The result of the 
war to the Indians. — "Cold-blooded treachery." — How Chief 
Joseph treated white prisoners. — " The glory of the West." — Col. 
Steptoe's defeat. — " For God's sake, give me something to kiU my- 
self with." — The others saved by other Indians. — An Ingrate. — 
Col. Wright's victory ; G20 horses butchered. — How Wright treated 
Indian prisoners. — "The Chief Moses outrage." — "Mystery." 
—$70,000,000 squandered by the gang. 



Contents. 15 

CHAPTER XIIL 

Indians, concluded. — " The Waiilatpu massacre. — The thrilling 
story of one who, as a girl, was an eye witness, and then taken 
away as a prisoner. — Forebodings of the murderous outbreak. 
— Friendly warnings given. — The dying hours of Dr. and Mrs. 
"Whitman." — Mission life among the Indians. — As the Indians 
were in 1852 ; and then in 1856. — Death of Chief Kanaskat. — How 
Indians are preserved. — How "civilization" was introduced to the 
natives of South and Central America. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Home building narrative resumed. — Improve homestead claim 
as I had the other. — The market, etc.— My herds of cattle, horses, 
hogs, etc. — Great prosperity. — Railroads built from tide water ; 
freights, etc. — Immigration. — Further enlargement of my home 
and business by leasing, fencing and breaking a quarter section of 
school land. — Copy of the lease and receipt for second year's pay- 
ment on the same. — The law and custom as to it. — Confirmed by 
Congress. — Serve as county road viewer and on first grand jury 
of Columbia County, and learn something. —Road supervisor of a 
twenty-mile district.— A review, and what I have learned about 
farming, etc.— The best economy while " serpents are at the udder." 



CHAPTER XV. 

Land jumping.— First serious case in the " France settlement." 
— Our graveyard started. — The " poor man's friend." — Street fight 
with a jumper. -''Hurrah for Whetstone Hollow." Public senti- 
ment as to such cases. —When the courts and press stand in with 
the people, and when against them.— Land sharks. — How petty 
thieves are shot down with impunity. — Home wreckers ; how mv 
prosperity made me an object of envy and ravage.— A murderous 
conspiracy by gentlemen with great influence at court to jump my 
pre-emption and school land portions of my well-earned, improved 
and stocked home.— The lying pretexts that were invented and 
used as a blind ; jump all the water, etc., on my place. — ''If you 
want any water, dig for it ! "—Wanted to get me into their courts. 
— How I repossessed my own. — " Will fix you by helping H. . 
jump your school land ! "—How I had befriended them.— "Damned 
be he who first cries hold : enough ! " — Tries to drive me off with 
a gun, etc. — How we get better acquainted; get friendly and he 



16 Contents. 

agrees to quit. — How I was performing my homage against a 
lui'king foe. — His object. — Is set to resume the conflict. — " An out- 
rage for one man to own all the land, and the water too." — "Will 
settle it with an ounce of lead," etc. — Boasts of his backing and 
influence. — "We will make it hot as hell for you now." — " I have 
taken your school land, E — , your pre-emption, and by G — d ! we 
will soon have a man on your homestead ! " — A man loans me his 
pistol for defense, and then eggs on the jumper. — The lying gang. 
— " But truth shall conquer at the last." — Jumper's many -wicked 
threats. — Try to have him bound over to keep the peace. — My 
instructions from the peace ofiicer. — " Be prepared to defend your- 
self and sow the ground." — He loans me seed for the pui'pose. — 
" There comes [Jumper] now with a gun! " — "Let us go out and 
see what he is going to do with it." — " I don't care a damn what 
he does with it." — How he followed me around the field with a 
cocked carbine in both hands. — Quits and has a secret conference 
with the man who did not care a damn what he done with his gun. 
— " I ask you as a friend and neighbor to quit sowing wheat and 
leave the field, for there is going to be trouble ! " — " Look out for 
him, now!" — Belches out at the end of a stream of profanity, 
"turnback! leave the field ! and don't come back nary time ! " — 
"I will fix you!" crack, bang/ — "I will kill you!" crack, bang/ — 
I return the fire in rapid succession, thus saving my life. — Positice, 
certain, incontrovertible proof as to the same. — How he missed me by a 
scratch! — "There, France is shot!" — The lying gang. — "Where 
logic is invented and wi'ong is called right." — Am charged with 
murder! — The would-be assassin, home ravager and ravisher is 
shielded, venerated and revenged by his gang. — " If by this means 
we further our cause, the private assassin deserves our applause." 
— Am thrown into jail without a hearing. — Held in jail near ten 
months begging and demanding a trial; can never get either a 
trial or hearing. — " Virtue distressed " could get no protection 
here. — Am betrayed, sold and given away. — " His glories lost, his 
cause Betrayed ! " — Shanghaied to the gang's Bastile in double 
irons. — "Oh ! 'twas too much, too dreadful to endure P^ — "He jests at 
scars that never felt a wound ! " — " Is this then," thought the 
youth, "is this the way to free man's spirit from the deadening 
sway of worldly sloth ; to teach him while he hves to know no 
bliss but that which virtue gives ? " — Examples of other cases, and 
what the law is. — My case as established, and the law, etc., as to 
the same. 



Contents. 17 

CHAPTER XVI. 

A pilgrimage thrpugli hell ! — Seven years' experience in the 
Seateo contract bastile ; the kind of a hell and swindle this was ; 
how I was taken there ; a thi-ee or four days journey by wagon, 
boat and rail. — How I was judged by people on the road. — Sym- 
pathy. — " Either innocent of crime or a very bad man." — The set 
questions asked by those who had suffered likewise. — Des(!ription 
of the bastile. — How I was impressed. — The kind of people I found 
the prisoners to be, and the officials. — How they were employed. — 
What they had done and what they had not done; their com- 
plaints, etc. — Jumping away. — The crooked and rocky road to 
liberty. — Who got there and how. — The inquisition of the mind. — 
How prisoners are driven to the frenzy of despair and death. — 
What they earned and were worth to the gang. — What it cost the 
people. — What they got to eat and wear. — How they were treated 
when well and when sick. — The punishments. — How I was engag- 
ed while in the midst of flaming desolation. — Crazy prisoners. — 
The good and bad qualities and conduct of the officials. — The re- 
deeming feature of the institution. — The different nationalities 
and occupations represented and their experiences. — One of the 
Polaris' crew; six months on an ice floe. — The good, bad and 
mixed; the innocent, guilty and the victims of circumstances, 
whiskey and accidents. — Inequality of sentences and treatment. 
— Ro1)bing the cradle and the grave for seventy cents a day. — 
How they lived and died. — The censorship on correspondence and 
the real object of the same. — A secret prison. — Shanghaied 
prisoners trj^ to make theii' cases known to the public. — How the 
Governor stood in ^^th the gang. — Letters smuggled by ministers, 
members of the Legislature, humane guards, etc. — Squelching 
letters of vital importance. — "Damn you, you can't prove it." — 
Like abuses in the insane asylum. — The remedy. — A j^lf^a that any 
prisonei f^Jtall ai least he accorded a public hearing, and let the People 
judge. — The worst criminals not in prison, but in office ; their 
victims crushed. — A pet prisoner turned in with a bottle of whis- 
key and a pistol in his pockets. — The visiting preachers ; what 
they thought of the prisoners and of the officials. — One that was 
a thorough-bred; would fight the devil in any guise; what he done 
for reform and how he was bounced. — Can ^vl'ite to him yourself. 
— Cruel deception. — False and cheating hopes. — ''There is France, 
if he had not been so anxious about getting home, he would have 
been out long ago." — '' Must keep still and not bore anybody." — 

2 



18 CONI ENTS. 

Holo the still and mrek languished and di<d! — How other prisoners 
■were shanghaied. — "Bad conduct." — ]My conduct; strikes, etc. — 
How officials are interested against a prisoner's justice. — How 
''heaven is sometimes just and pays ns back in measures that we 
mete." — How prisoners are robbed.— Women prisoners and how 
they were treated. — Visits of the legislature, etc. — A prisoner 
makes a great speech and his teeth are pulled out for the trouble 
it makes the officials. — What the legislature said and what they 
did. — The pardoning power and how it was exercised. — The lie. — 
That "to hear prisoners talk they are all innocent." — Reading 
matter, etc. — How to control prisoners. — How they get revenge. — 
How prisoners should be treated. — Where they should be kept. — 
How a prison should be conducted to be seK-supporting and to 
reform those who need reforming. — How to enforce the sacred 
right of petition and the sober second thought of the people. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Prison experience, continued. — My personal efforts and that 
of my friends for my release from the Bastile, for some kind of a 
trial, and for only a respectful hearing. — The result, etc. — "Truth 
wears no mask, bows at no human shrine, seeks neither place nor 
applause, she only asks a hearing." — Letters of my wife; governors, 
judges, and various other persons, and correspondence. — Petitions, 
recommendations, etc., etc., and how they were treated, etc., etc. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
Prison experience, continued — An epitome of my life, case and 
trouble addressed to Governor and people.— The only argument and 
summing up of my case that was ever made. — The frank but fruit- 
less wail for justice and humanity by a victim ; shanghaied, ravaged 
and languishing in prison. — " Let thy keen glance his life search 
through, and bring his actions in review, for actions speak the 
man." — "While love and peace and social joy were there. Oh, 
peace! oh, social joy ! Oh, heaven-born love ! Were these your 
haunts, where murderous demons rove? Distinction neat and 
nice, which lie between the poison'd chalice and the stab unseen." 



Contents. 19 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Prison experience, concludnl. — Efforts to get my case before 
the Supreme Court. — Copious extracts from my diary kept in 
prison. — ''Considering my case." — ''Seeing about it," etc., etc. — 
My appeals to Legislatures, the President, Congress, etc. — How 
changes in Governors, etc., are disscussed by prisoners. — Prisoners 
that were shanghaied and never convictid. — How I established my 
good conduct against the lying gang. — The " good Judiciary." — 
Efforts of and for other prisoners, and results. — Removal to "Walla 
Walla. — My release, etc. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Tragedies. — Land jumping, etc. — Experience of other men. — 
More of real life and death in the Northwest. — What was transpii*- 
ing with other people while and since I was languishing in prison 
for defending my life and home against the gang. — All of these 
were either acquitted of any crime, or not even indicted or 
troubled. — The glaring contrast. — ''Uneasy settlers." — "A pro- 
tective association ;" "land jumping;" "put-up jobs;" "homes im- 
perilled;" "shooting affair;" "Vigilantes;" "murderous assault by 
a band of midnight assassins;" "high handed." — "With pride in 
their port, defiance in their eye, we see the secret lurking lords of 
human kind pass by." — "Lynching;" "people arming;" "a danger- 
ous man ;" "land troubles;" " a tramp boom ;" "killed for robbing 
sluice boxes;" "laying in wait to kill;" filled with shot; killing 
three men for a few dollars. 



CHAPTER XXL 

Land troubles, etc., continued. — "The Riparian fight." — On 
Puget Sound. — Shooting for the tide lands. — A woman defending 
her claim.— Dynamite. — Vigilantes by the thousand. — Big money 
for the Court gang. — Lawyers instigating a fight. — Land jumping. 

— Coroner's inquests.— " Defective" land titles. — A trick of the 
Court gang. — "I tell you again to stop plowing." — Crack! Bang! 

— Why government lands are classified when they are all good for 
homes if good for anything. — The Court "bar" (gang) organizes 

troul)le. " Be ready."— " Parasites."—" Citizens arming."— Who 

gets 90 per cent, of all plunder. 



20 Contents. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Sample tragedy cases in the Northwest, in brief, concluded. — 
What members of the gang can do to others with impunity. Vic- 
tims that were not venerated or sanctified by the gang. — About 
land. — " Shot him dead." — Stabbed him to the heart. — Stabbed 
him in the head. — Shot down in cold blood. — The Court burnt in 
effigy, and why. — "A dark scheme." — "This is not the first time 
I have had to face lead to protect my rights." — "Served the fiend 
right." — Shooting a man down in cold blood for a few dollars. — 
Killing a man for alleged threats to burn his house. — " The hero 
of the hour." Etc., etc. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The courts and laws of Washington and Alaska. — Women as 
jurors, etc. — "The infamous decision," etc., etc. — "Complaints of 
Court." — "A novel ruling," etc. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
The courts and laws of Oregon, Montana and British Colum- 
bia, etc, 



CHAPTER XXV. 

The courts and laws of California and the States, etc. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Big land steals in Washington. — " 80 per cent, of the entries 
in one district fraudulent." — How this is accomplished, and who 
can do it with impunity. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Big land steals in Oregon, California, etc. — How it is done 
there. — "In a valley, 30 miles long, ditches were dug from the 
stream, dams built, the land flooded, and then taken up by the 
gang as ' swamp land,' " etc. — This is why land is classified. — 
Brazen perjury, and nobody punished. — The reason. — Wagon road 
swindles, etc. — Sink artesian wells to irrigate " swamp land," etc. 
— "Three-fourths of the land titles fraudulent." — Murdering home- 
builders. 



Contents. 21 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Railroads, big grants, etc., in the Northwest, etc. — How they 
are worked. What they cost the gangs. — What they control. — A 
servile and purchased press. — Advice to settlers. — What a " terri- 
torial pioneer" says. — WJiai the people saxj. — ''Awake! arise! or be 
forever fallen I " 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

As to the martial law trouble in protecting highbinder China- 
men and white criminals on Puget Sound,when American citizens 
were pillaged, murdered and driven out with no troops to protect 
them. — Vigilance committee. — " Justice blinded with a vengeance." 
Judge Lynch, and how he judged. — Death from poverty, etc. etc. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

The Tartaric horde vs. American Citizens. — "A crisis." — 
" To the thinking man," " even to those who do not think." — The 
Anti-Chinese Congress, etc., etc. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Anti-Chinese. — " A great demonstration at Seattle ; the larg- 
est ever seen in the territory." — Making fish of one set of citizens 
and fowl of another, etc., etc. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

The Tacoma trouble and the Exodus. — Statement of promi- 
nent citizens. — "Truth and justice buried, and fraud and guile 
succeed," etc., etc. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Captain of the Queen's story as to the Seattle Exodus. — 
Xinety-seven Chinamen in court. — " The Government is strong 
and will protect" [secret highbinders with influence at court, J etc. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 
" Home Guards " fire into the crowd ; five men wounded ; one 
dies. — " Shot down in cold blood." — Charged with murder, etc. — 



22 'Contents. 

The City of Seattle under martial law. — Drive out white citizens 
and protect Chinese highbinders. — '' Military headquarters/' etc. 
— Unmeasured gall. — Blackstone on martial law. — '' Treason doth 
never prosper, what's the reason ? Wh}^ if it prosper, none dare 
call it treason," — "Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on 
the throne." 



CHAPTER XXXV. 
Court Martial and a Military Commission mth a Judge-Ad- 
vocate and Recorder now under eight indictments for forgery and 
robbery. — Crime made respectable, and to tell the truth is made a 
crime. — "An authentic account." — It is the weakest, not the worst, 
that goes to the wall. — United States troops, etc., etc. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 
The judgment of the people and of the Supreme Court. — The 
martial law "mere lawless violence" ; but "the trail of the serpent 
is over them all." 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

A brief, comprehensive and practical history of Masonry, 
Knight Templars of Malta, St. John, Hospitalers, etc. — The 
Crusades to possess the Holy Land; Egypt, etc. — How Jerusalem 
and Acre were taken and re-taken. — Why the Holy Land was 
made a desert. — The practical workings of the Masonry and 
kindred Orders of to-day. 

— Mostly the testimony of others, as taken from books and 
the press. 



CHAPTER I. 

striking out from Lome wlien a boy. — My object. — Ho ! For the Oil 
Regions in Pennsylvania. — My Chum. — Great Excitement. — Oil City 
flooded. — "Coal Oil Johnny." — Tools, etc., used in boring for oil. — 
All about finding oil. — And what the oil is. — My experience for about 
a year. 

1 N the winter of 1864-65 I concluded to leave my home in New 
York lor an indefinite time ; not exactly to hunt buffalo and kill 
Indians on the plains, for killing was never sport to me, and I 
was not 'wild,' nor to seek my fortune ; for at that time this did 
not appear necessary, though I expected to earn by work my 
living and travelling expenses, and more, if I run on to any 
great opportunity to do so. My object was to see and know 
more of the living, bustling, wild and wide world, than what 
transpired in the drowsy orthodox range in which I was 
confined. 

My parents tried to dissuade and divert me from my pur- 
pose, but, as I had Set my heart on it, they neither strenuously 
opposed me nor did they give any formal consent ; but left 
the field clear for my return as the prodigal son of old, which 
they prophesied I would soon do, for them to say "did I not 
tell you so, my boy," and to lessen the sting of adieu. 

Little did I then think I was never to see them any more 
in this world, or know the terrible pangs of grief I would suffer 
when we really kissed each other good bye, and that the 
thought of that sad event would haunt me, and make me sick 
at times, for many years to come. 

A young friend was to ramble with me, and we started 
March 13th, 1865. The oil regions in Pennsylvania was our 
first destination, as there were many fabulous stories afloat, 
and much excitement about oil at that time, to such an extent, 
that poor men at a distance were mortgaging their homes to 
buy stock in oil companies (or confidence games) then being 
worked and played to catch the unwary ; and wages and em- 
ployment there were reputed as high and abundant. 

At the end of the third da}' we arrived by rail at the end 
of the track — then about a mile from Oil City. We jumped off 



24 Steiking Out From Home. 

into the mud aud oil a foot or two deep, and waded through it 
in the dark to town and to a hotel (could have ridden for two 
dolla,rs). 

The next day it was raining; teams were stuck in the street, 
loaded with but a few hundred pounds. 

Teaming (hauling oil, coal, lumber, machinery, etc.,) was 
a great business in the oil regions at that time. The price 
of single teams and wagon with driver was twenty dollars per 
day or more, and they made forty dollars per day in handling 
flat boats in and up Oil Creek. Drivers were rated at fifty 
dollars per month, and no one envied their pay or position. 
The vast amount of dead horses lying about or floating down 
the Creek, the number of broken wagons in sight, together 
with the high price of stable room, feed, etc., showed that it 
was not all profit. Yet there was big money in the business 
to those whom such drawbacks were not discouraging, but 
were taken as a matter of course. 

A scene on the road : — A team loaded with oil stuck in a 
mud hole full of big boulders and blocking the way for twenty 
teams behind ; the driver asks the nearest "what will j-ou take 
to pull me out?" "Nothing for that, but two dollars and fifty 
cents for hitching on in the mud." 

In time roads were made, feed, stable room, etc., got cheap 
and handy, when, as there was nothing frightful in the business, 
everybody was willing to engage in it, and nobody made much 
in the business any more. 

Next came railroads, and then, in time, pipe-lines were 
added for conveying oil. 

Crowds of disgusted and home-sick men having failed to 
find employment, and short of money, told discouraging stories 
to us — they were discouraging to us then, to be sure, because 
of our inexperience in the world, otherwise we would have 
critically gathered useful and encouraging information instead. 

However, my chum concluded during the day that he had 
rambled far enough from his good old home and that we were 
p,bout lost, too, and having now been absent for several whole 
days and nights, and remembering that his pet mare was liable 
to have a colt Avitli none to caress them, and corn planting time 
would soon be- on hand with his vacant place to fill, he reluct- 



The Oil Regions. 25 



antlj left me to my self-willed fate and returned home to his 
mother — and he was about right. 

As neither of us had any trade, and common labor appeared 
very rugged and abundantly supplied, and not having any 
money, letters of acquaintance, or other means by which we 
could engage in some one or another of the business opportun- 
ities, the outlook, indeed, was not brilliant or strewn with roses. 
But I had not expected it would be ; I had not counted on 
getting a berth as conductor as we travelled along, as clerk at a 
hotel wherever we happened to stop for a few days, or as con- 
fidential agent for some big concern, on sight and application; 
nor yet the gift of a team, flat-boat, brewery or oil-well, as an 
inducement to stop a few months when we got there. 

Leaving my cumbrous valise at the hotel I struck out 
among the oil-wells to see what I could see, learn and discover. 
The rain storm continued, resulting in a flood ; Oil Creek rose 
to a river and with the Alleghany inundated the town of Oil 
City to the extent that those living in the business and lower 
portion had to move upstairs in the niglit, the street was over- 
flowed, and the public buildings, churches, etc., were occupied 
with those who were entirely drowned out. 

Re'airning the following day, I found my valise in five or 
six feet of water — all being confusion and havoc, as water was 
king, and he was mad. 

Millions of dollars in oil, barrels, tanks, flat-boats, rafts of 
lumber, buildings, merchandise, etc., etc., were carried away, 
destroyed, or damaged. 

When the water had subsided, I rolled oil barrels on the 
dock for a few days at sixty cents per hour, and then got a 
job with a surveyor as chain carrier at three dollars per da}', 
which I held until I had travelled over much of that region. 

I remember seeing old Indian camping grounds and hear- 
ing the stories of how they used to gather the "Seneca oil" 
with blankets on Oil Creek, and sell it for medical purposes to 
the pale-faced invaders. 

These were days of jubilee for the horny-handed farmers 
anywhere around here, as they could now sell their poor and 
rugged side-hill farms for five, ten and twenty thousand dollars 
to speculators and companies who were now minutely surveying 



26 Striking Out From Home. 

them, with their springs and creeks to map and paint in glow- 
ing colors, to divide up and sell to strangers as oil lands rich 
in prospects. 

Many tricks were invented and used to effect sales of "oil 
lands," such as burying barrels of oil, slightly tapped, near 
some spring, so the oil would run in and flow from it, and as 
carrying a hollow cane — with a valve in the end — filled with 
oil to show an investor, oil "most anywhere around here just 
by pushing a stick in the ground, you see." 

But it was at a distance, on pasteboard and paper, that 
"oil lands" and "town lots" for sale appeared the most enchant- 
ing, as bluffs and craggy hills appeared as level land then, and 
the streams and springs were often only in the mind and 
picture. 

However, in time it transpired that surface indications 
proved little or nothing anywa}', as wells that were sunk in, or 
near real oil springs, seldom, if ever, produced in paying 
quantities, and the high lands — at first considered worthless — 
proved as good as any, except the inconvenience or inaccessi- 
bility in working it. 

And altogether only one well in perhaps a hundred pro- 
duced any oil, and it was more apt to yield but one barrel per 
da}' than two or three hundred ; very few outside investors who 
kept their stock or interests got their money back. 

Many original owners of the land held on to it and allowed 
others to sink wells on it — the owner to receive one-third of 
what oil might be produced. This is what the widow McClintoc 
did, and which made "Coal Oil Johnny" — her adopted sou — so 
rich for a time and notorious as a prodigal son of fortune. 

While he was scattering his wealth to the wild winds, he 
declared to his friends, who tried to divert him from his down- 
ward course, that "he had driven a team on Oil Creek for a 
living and could do so again," and substantially this he after- 
wards had to do in other places. Though he spent much of 
his fortune in reckless dissipation and sport, he also gave away 
a great deal from a most noble impulse and kindl}^ feeling. 
But perhaps more than either or both amounts was gotten from 
him by "real nice and respected" gentry, by chicanery of the 



The Oil Eegions. 27 



most contemptible and villainous type, — such as setting up 
banks to "fail" after catching his large deposits. 

He knows more of human and inhuman characters now ; 
what a pity for him and his, that he had not learned it in his 
youth, either in his own efforts for a living, or it had been 
taught to him by the wider and deeper experience of others, 
educated by struggling with the real masked and brazen world. 

Much has been said and sung about the prodigality of 
**Johnny Coal Oil," but somehow we never hear of any great 
good flowing from those who got two barrels of oil, whenever 
John Steel got one. 

It was customary in the oil regions to keep a pail of 
petroleum in the house for making fires, and in this way Mrs. 
McClintoc was burned to death. I was at and over the place. 

Others lost their opportunity to gain a competency by thus 
allowing their places to be prospected or tested, instead of sell- 
ing on faith and hope, at a time when it was universal and 
strong. 

When the whole country had been prospected, it then 
transpired that the oil lands lay in narrow belts without regard 
to creeks, hills, or other surface formation, and in these, oil 
had not been always found. 

Crude petroleum is as thick or heavy as lard oil ; but the 
color is a deep green ; it emits an odor like the petroleum axle 
grease sold throughout the country. I shipped a barrel of it 
home, as a curiosity and for lubricating machinery. 

It appears to be a sort of fish oil, the sand-stone in which 
it is confined being sometimes the bed of a sea, and by its up- 
heaval, turned off the water and gave the whale-like animals 
their death in the sand, this sand drifting or otherwise receiv- 
ing and holding from evaporation their carcasses and oil, when 
the sand hardens into a strata of sand-stone, retaining and 
confining the oil with the gases. 

My next employment Avas in running an engine for a pump- 
ing oil well at four dollars per da}' ; board being from six to 
eight dollars per week, (the Pennsylvania Dutch are exception- 
ally good livers); and then I worked as driller in boring other 
wells at the same wages ; and at one of these employments or 
the other— sometimes sharpening and repairing the tools being 



28 Steiking Out Fkom Home. 

included — I was engaged during the most of my sojourn in tlie 
Oil Regions, which time was nearly eleven months. I thus 
worked at different wells and localities. 

At one place (Franklin) I sunk a well, with one helper, 
from five hundred to about a thousand feet deep ; and as there 
was but the two of us (they generally run night and day, re- 
quiring four men) we put in as much time as we desired, which 
was sixteen hours per day and eighteen on Saturdays. This 
well was sunk four or five hundred feet deeper than others, as 
an experiment, but found no oil. A humbug oil " smeller " had 
traced several veins of oil to a junction at the very spot we 
bored through, he " could (and did) give the depth " also. 

The average oil well was five inches in diameter. The 
average boring tools consist of a bit, or drill, two and a half 
feet long, which is screwed into a round bar, twenty-two feet 
long (" anger stem "), which is screwed into one end of a pair 
of heavy links ("Jars") five feet long, the other end of the jars 
being screwed into a round bar (" sinker bar ") eight feet long, 
which is screwed into the end of a rope socket, three feet long, 
all made of three inch round iron, and weigh eleven or twelve 
hundred pounds. The end of a one and a half inch rope is 
wrapped and riveted into the rope socket ; the other end of the 
rope is passed up over a pulley at the top of the derrick and 
down to and wound around the shaft of a windlass-like wheel 
("bull wheel"), which is attached by a a rope belt to a ten 
horse power engine, and used to lower and raise the tools in 
the well whenever the bit is dulled or the sediment (drillings) 
needs to be pumped out, which is as often as every two and 
a half feet is gone down. 

The tools are now suspended just over the hole, which is 
about full of water. The rope belt having been thrown from 
the bull-wheel, the driller, with a brake on the wheel, lets the 
tools run, or nearly drop, to the bottom of the hole (the engine 
being used in raising them out). Next the rope at a few feet 
above the mouth of the hole is clasped tightly to a screw 
arrangement ("temper screw"), the screw itself being two and 
a half feet long, the upper end of which is a swivel and hook, 
which is hooked under the end of a walking beam, say thirty feet 
long, the other end of it being attached to the engine with a 




(29) 



30 Striking Out From Home. 

pitmen; then slack is given the rope above by turning the bull- 
■wheel back, thus causing the tools to hang suspended to the 
walking beam; when the engine is started, the tools being 
simply raised and dropped two or three feet at every turn of 
the walking beam, which is made to go slow or fast according 
to the depth of the hole and length of the rope; as can be 
imagined, the deeper the hole, the slower the stroke. 

The weight of the bit, the twenty-two feet "anger stem" 
and the lower link, or half of the " jars," being the downward 
or drilling force, or weight; while the weight in the upper link, 
or half of the jars, with the eight feet "sinker bar," jars the bit 
loose as it jerks it up. Little or much "jar" being given, ac- 
cording to how much the bit sticks. If the hole be deep and 
no "jar" is given, the walking beam will play on the stretch of 
the rope, without raising the tools from the bottom. If the 
hole be shallow (so that the rope is short) and the jar is allow- 
ed to run entirely out, then the bit, sticking much, stops the 
engine or breaks something ; while too much jar lessens the fall 
of the bit and lower part of the tools, making it drill slow 
in proportion. 

The driller, sitting on a stool, turns the screw and rope on 
the swivel above a little at each downward stroke, and as the 
drill works down, so the jar feels slight, indistinct, or, if the bit 
sticks, he unscrews the temper-screw, giving more rope and 
more jar. When he has thus unscrewed the length of the 
screw (two and a half feet), or the bit is sooner dulled, the tools 
are hoisted out and another tool ("rimmer") is substituted for 
the two and a half feet bit, which is to cut or rim the hole one 
inch larger than the bit (the cut of the bit being but four 
inches) and is done to keep the hole round. 

This done, the tools are again hoisted out, and a sharpened 
bit replaces the rimmer to make another two or two and a half 
feet. But before the tools are let down again, the sediment or 
drillings must be pumped out with the "sand-pump." This 
tool is sim]:ly a zinc pipe, five feet long and three and a half or 
four inches in diameter, with a valve in one end and a bail on 
the other ; to this bail is tied the end of a half-inch rope which 
is reeled on a wheel ; the pump is dropped into the hole, and 
when it reaches the bottom the driller works it up and down a- 



The Oil Regions. 31 



few times by the rope, thus workinpr the mud or drillings up 
\hrough the valve into the pipe or ]iump, then the engine reels 
"^t up very quickly when it is emptied and the same simple 
process repeated three or four times, at the completion of every 
two or two and half feet. 

Before drilling is commenced on a well, heavy seven-inch 
iron pipe — in seven feet sections - is driven with a ram to the 
bed rock, or else an ordinary well is dug down to it and a plank 
box pipe set up in it, the upper end being at the surface and is 
the top of the welL Solid rock is desired and generally had 
the rest of the way. The exceptions being in mud veins and 
cavities, which frequently cause trouble by pieces of rock 
working out and falling on the tools, to the extent sometimes 
that the tools and hole are abandoned. 

Five or six feet per day — of twelve hours — is about the 
average work in boring a 600 feet well. 

In the Oil Creek section, three stratas of sand-stone are 
found and gone through, each thirty or forty feet thick, in 
which the oil is. Little or none is found in the first strata (at 
about 225 feet), more is apt to be found in the second (at about 
425 feet), but never, I believe, in paying quantities, so that little 
notice is given to any prospects found here either ; but when 
the third strata is reached and gone through, which is at a 
depth of nearly 600 hundred feet, then the boring is finished ; as 
here in the third sand-stone is where oil is expected to be found, 
if at all, and worked. 

The kind of rock between the stratas of sand-stone is 
mostly granite, slate or soap-stone, with thin stratas of a 
harder nature, sometimes flint. 

In one well, in say a thousand, oil is struck which immedi- 
ately flows and spurts out ; but whether this be the case or not, 
the well is next piped to within a few feet of the bottom with a 
two and a half inch gas or water pipe, having a pump valve in 
the bottom section, and a leather bag the size of the well (five 
inches) and two feet long is tied at each end around the pipe 
or tubing, so it will be just above the third sand-stone ; this 
"seed bag" having been filled with flax seed, which, swelling, 
shuts off all the water above it to the surface, thus allowing 
any pressure of oil and watf^r wlvch- may be below it in the 



32 Striking Out Feom Home. 

third sand-stone to flow up the tubing without incumbrance 
from the veins of water for 500 feet or more above. 

But unless a strong force of gas is tapped, neither oil nor 
•water is apt to be very pressing to get up. In any such case, 
however, it generally flows or spurts out at intervals, sj)asmod- 
ically, with gas enough to run an engine and more. 

Usually no oil has yet appeared when "sucker rods," with 
a pump valve at the end of the first section, are let down into 
the tubing to the bottom, and the upper end attached to the 
walking beam, and pumping commenced and continued — night 
and day and Sundays — for about six weeks. When if nothing 
but water, or water and gas appears, the well is abandoned, 
which, of course, is generally the case. The water may be salt 
at the start, or get to be such after pumping a few days or 
weeks. Salt water is a favorable sign, it frequently being 
followed by oil, and oil is not found without it. I believe 
petroleum was first struck in boring for salt. 

The Indians of the oil regions had gone to their happy 
hunting grounds, or had been removed, or fables as to their 
supposed knowledge of oil springs, etc., might have been in- 
vented and they thus utilized by rings of men— with the aid of 
their press — and the oil excitement prolonged, as is done in 
other mining regions. 

Moreover, it was too accessible to the outside world, by 
rail and the Alleghany River, for, with slight expense, time and 
inconvenience, those who were furnishing the cash, for the 
operators to invest and steal, could see and learn for them- 
selves the business and properties in which so many were 
wildly investing. 

This is the reason the Pacific railroads and Gen. Crook 
(who settled the Indians beyond question for a time in 
Arizona) were such a curse to the mining and tributary interests 
in the far west, causing whole districts to be abandoned, and so 
they are yet. Many with money to invest then learned, in ad- 
vance of investment, not to expect returns from investments in 
ring companies on account of songs sung of a comparative few 
lucky strikes ; so times in the mining and oil camps became 
very hard. And as many of the games were being closed for a 
change of base and operations, away from lines of travel, many 



The Oil Regions. 33 



of the common herd of men were swindled out of their wages, 
deposits or sa'S'ings, and with the outside investors were settled 
with in stocks of experience, in knowledge they should have 
gained in their youth. 

" For such is the temper of men that before they have had the 
trial of great afflictions, they do not understand what is for their 
advantage : but when they find themselves under such afflictions, 
they then change then* minds, and what it had been better for 
them to have done before they had been at all damaged, they 
choose to do, but not until after they have suffered such damage." 

— Josephus. 

A few months or years as a news-boy, or spent in sweeping, 
or doing errands in offices or dens of lawyers, ring companies 
or other gangs, so he hears the talk that goes on there, with 
practical moral lessons at home, is for a boy the best bequest, 
the best endowment, the most wise foundation, stock in trade 
and security for fortune and favor, and to keep one "unspotted 
in the world" — though he may spot others. 

I was present at the dying scenes of those plays, so skill- 
fully painted in oil, and years afterwards at others, galvanized 
in silver and gold. 

I left the oil regions on February 11th, 1866, having earned 
nearly one thousand dollars ; had many enjoyable times and 
others not so pleasant ; had been at all the towns and sections 
from Franklin and below to Titusville, and from Oil Creek to 
Pit-hole. Had lost various sums in loaning and in simple con- 
fidence and folly, had disposed of other sums in friendshij) and 
favor and pleasure, and got away with about five hundred 
dollars ; had I remained a little longer, a bank would have got 
away with most of that, as it was near the time set to close 
thei?' deals, done in the name and guise of security (?) and by 
the protection of the courts. 

Courts grind the jDoor, and rings rule the courts. 



CHAPTER II. 

Leaving the oil regions for a good time ' ' out West. " — A period of travel, 
etc., of four aud a lialf months to the Missouri river. — Then crossing 
the i^lains to Salt Lake Avith wagon train in sixty days. — Our train. — 
My team. — First camjj in a storm. — Fording the Platte river with its 
quick-sand bottom. — Big teams. — My first drink — Delusion in dis- 
tance. — Game. — Freighting, etc. — Life and Government on the 
plains. — A comprehensive account of the region from the Missouri 
river to Salt Lake Valley. 

OTHEKS have said before that a dollar's worth of pure 
pleasure is worth more than a dollar's worth of anything else 
in the world — that working is not living, but only the means by 
which we win a living ; that money is good for nothing, except 
for what it brings of comfort and culture. Believing in this 
philosophy, I next started out to live and to enjoy the pleasure 
and culture I had won, devoting the ensuing four and a half 
months to travel by rail, water and stage (tramping was not 
much in vogue then), and in visiting relatives and others of my 
acquaintance, who had settled "out West," in Ohio, Illinois^ 
Michigan and Nebraska. 

This was a season of enjoyment, unalloyed by cares, hard- 
whips or perplexities of any kind, and to which my mind often 
reverts, and always with the utmost pleasure aud satisfaction. 
Of the pleasant homes and happy families, of the genuine hos- 
pitality, affection, friendship and good times I enjoyed on every 
hand, I should like to dwell on. And also of the cities and 
many places and objects of interest I saw to admire ; but as 
there was nothing rugged or strange blended in my experiences 
here, I must thus pass them over, which brings me to the 20th 
of June, 1866, when I found myself at Nebraska City in charge 
of a four mule team and wagon, loaded with improved rifles, 
and bound over the plains for Salt Lake City. 

"Joy bounds through evevy throbbing vein — 
Dear world ? where love and pleasure reign." 

None of the Pacific railroads had yet been built, but the 
U. P. and Central was commenced that summer ; consequently 
all the freight required to supply Denver, the Mines, Salt Lake, 

(34) 



Life on the Plains. 35 



tlie Military Posts and the whole region between the Missouri 
river and the Pacific ocean and our northern line and Mexico, 
with the slight exception of some river navigation near the 
coast, was then transported in wagons by mule and ox teams. 
For safety and convenience these travelled in companies or 
trains of say twenty to forty wagons. An average ox team was 
six yoke and that of mules run from four to fourteen animals. 
I think the Government standard of six is the most practicable 
team for teaming; most any one can handle and care for such a 
team ; a load can be gotten on one wagon without the risk of sid- 
ling and soft roads, and the leaders of the team don't need to 
swing all over the country in making a few miles, as do large 
teams and trail or high-loaded wagons. 

Freighting on the plains was an extensive and usually a 
profitable industry, but the fortunes were mostly acquired by 
ring favorites of Government officials, on account of Govern- 
ment transportation, and they, usually, sub-letting to others 
who did the work at half the cost to Uncle Sam. This western 
region — marked on the old maps as the "Great American De- 
sert," or the " Plains," as the unsettled j^ortions are called in 
the west — in the days I speak of were much like the ocean in 
many respects, and in this, that there were no courts and 
lawyers to murder justice. 

Everybody was expected to defend and protect himself and 
his own, and consequently was always more or less preoared 
and ready to do so. And it transpired that the results of this, 
simple and taxless mode of Government (anarchy) as practised 
on the plains by the many thousands and mottled throngs 
during those many years — though not above all desirable— yet 
that it was far superior to that of any ring-ridden lawyer gang 
infested community. 

Bad Indians and just as bad white men would murder and 
plunder to some extent, to be sure, but not to the extent one 
would imagine, considering the isolation and the large and en- 
ticing opportunities, and nothing in comparison to that com- 
mitted in the states in the name of one thing or another. 

This is true, notwithstanding the pretty true saying, that 
"Everybody quarrels in crossing the plains." But the com- 
panionship is often close in travelling, camping and working 



36 OiT West. 

together, and the necessary liardsliips and aggravations are 
often trying, and test to the quick all of the traits of the 
human disposition. 

Be this as it may, nobody was imprisoned, but few ever 
killed or hurt, and losses of property, or peace of mind, seldom 
occurred there from trouble with each other ; and it was such 
an active life, too. 

Plains' people usually refrained from practising tricks and 
confidence games in their dealings with one another, or even to 
take the advantage of ignorance, or necessity, (because there 
were no laws and courts to protect them in such devilry), there- 
fore they seldom had or made any trouble, and when any did 
occur, it was short and decisive, instead of a lingering, never- 
ending agony of suspense, expense and often of unjust torture, 
as is the result at rotten courts. 

A New York business man with his family, desiring to 
make a visit to Utah (his wife being a Mormon lady, strange 
though it may seem) and to increase his wealth, bought twenty- 
four new wagons, harness, etc., and over a hundred mules, 
which were also mostly new, loaded up with his own goods 
(general merchandise), and all for the Salt Lake City market. 

I was to drive one of his teams through at twenty dollars 
per month. Teamsters on the plains had usually been getting 
from forty to eighty dollars per month, but now so many were 
anxious to emigrate west to the mining regions, that hundreds 
were willing to drive even big ox teams for their board and 
passage — and they walked. 

On a Sunday we drove the band of mules from their open 
range - then but a few miles from Nebraska City — into town 
and corralled them. 

Outside of the towns especially, it was very unusual to ob- 
serve the Sabbath anywhere west of the Missouri river, and we 
church-going, praying puritans, who would shudder in holy 
horror at such desecration at home, now took to the wa^-s of the 
country, and the theory that " the Sabbath was made for man, 
and not man for the Sabbath." 

A part of our mules were unbroken and wild ; in order to 
mix them, the wagon-master or captain of the train — who by 
the way got a hundred and fifty dollars per month — allowed us 



Life on the Pl-UNs. 37 



drivers to pick oue pair for our team, when lie would select 
the other. I happened to get possession of perhaps the best 
pair iu the baud ; observing this, he said that " he reckoned, he 
could match them " (rather unmatch), and this he did ; I had 
to lasso and choke them to a wagon wheel to be harnessed, and 
throw them to be shod. In the first half mile they had the 
end of the wagon well splintered, so to save the splinters I put 
them on the lead, and, in trying to get back, they broke off the 
tongue. 

I had never driven four animals before, but thought, by 
locating a few wagons behind the lead wagon in the train, I 
could herd them along after the others in some way, though they 
were wild ; but they started me out on the lead, just as if I 
knew anything about leading a heavily loaded wagon train. 
Had on about 4000 pounds to the wagon, including four or five 
hundred pounds of corn for feed, which was very heavy loading 
for the plains. 

Got out a mile or two the first day and camped ; took a 
week to make the first ten miles. There were two men to herd 
the mules at night, -and one to drive the extra stock ; there 
were also two wagons belonging to the wagon master and his 
brother, who were Mormons, and one of our drivers was a 
Mormon preacher just returning from a foreign "mission." 

So there were about tliirtj^ of us, divided into four messes, 
well provided with grub for the trip, also with tents, but we 
seldom bothered to use them. Having bought blankets for 
the trip only, as I supposed, but found that the average man was 
expected to furnish his own bed most anywhere on the Pacific 
coast, and that a hay mow or straw stack is considered first- 
class lodging. I made my "bed" under my wagon, as it was 
raining, and turned iu with my clothes and boots on, as though 
I had been used to camping all my life and liked it. It was 
a pouring rain with thunder and forked lightning. When the 
water ran into my "bed" I awoke, and took a stroll around camp 
to see how others did, to get fun out of this sort of living ; this 
was simple enough. Those who were drowned out had put up 
a tent in the mud, and with "Fiddler Jim" were having a 
concert. 

After we got our corn fed up, we had room to sleep in the 



38 Out West. 

wagons ; however, it did not rain much more, nor is there any 
dew on the phiins. Onlj' this simple Liek of rain causes so 
mucli desert and desolate countr}-, and lack of soil and timber. 

Some freight trains had been manned with drivers in their 
necessity without aujf wages, and thev had struck on the plains 
and compelled the highest to be paid them, and there had been 
other trouble, though justice prevailed. So now our proprietor 
called us together to confirm our understanding and to sign 
some sort of written agreement. Some were in favor of this, 
others against it, and the rest did'nt care. The young black- 
smith, however, settled the question ; he was in favor of sign- 
ing a contract, and a strong one, "for," said he : "I signed one 
once, the only one in my life, that I would stay with a black- 
smith three years, and I stayed three months." 

The wagon master said : "He would just as soon take the 
boys' words for it, as was usual with him, and did not apprehend 
any trouble of any kind." Then after the proprietor had in- 
formed us as to the amount of work he could do, and the 
number of wagons he himself could drive, if necessary — six, I 
believe — the matter was dropped. 

In the West there are many good men who are afraid to 
put their names to any writing whatever, even to promises they 
are able and intend to fulfill ; they having learned that no one 
could know what the meaning might be construed to be, and the 
expense of the same, should it ever get into a court of justice(?). 

There were a few improved farms at and for a few miles 
beyond our first camp, which, I believe, was the last that we saw 
till we got to Salt Creek, which was rudely settled. Now 
Lincoln, the State Capital, and a railroad centre, is here. 
Mosquitos were thick and as blood-thirsty as the members of 
a "charitable" brotherhood, and this was about the last place we 
were annoyed by insect pests during the trip. 

The country from the Missouri Eiver to this longitude is a 
beautifiil and rich rolling prairie, and is now about all in culti- 
vation; but west of this, or say the 08th longitude to the coast 
range, the rainfall is insufficient or too uncertain, to farm suc- 
cessfully without irrigation (except in spots), and this is largely 
impracticable, because of the lack of soil or its being inacces- 
sible to water. 



Life on the Pl.uns. 39 



We struck the Platte river forty miles east of Fort 
Kerney, aud then travelled up its sandy bottom about 2-iO 
miles to where at that time was Julesburgh — a dilapidated 
military and stage station, 400 miles from the Missouri river. 

There were a great many dead oxen lying along the road, 
a great many Antelope were in sight, and owing to the rarefied 
air, were apparently close by, but really so far, that with all the 
shooting none were killed, and all we got was bought of the 
Indians. 

My first experience in the delusion of distance in a dry 
atmosphere occurred one afternoon on the Platte river. We 
having camped early, three of us thought we would walk out to 
and climb some hills, apparently half a mile from camp, to 
enjoy a better view ; we travelled a mile or two, and as they did 
not appear any nearer my chums turned back. I continued on 
about as much further, and seeing but little difi'erence yet, 
gave it up, aud in returning in the dark brought up at the 
camp fires of another train, half a mile from our own. 

At Julesburgh we forded the Platte; they called it half a 
mile wide here ; I would now have believed them had they said 
it was three miles wide. The river bed is quick-sand, aud there 
appears to be about as much sand as water rolling along to add 
to the country in the Gulf of Mexico. It is dangerous for a 
wagon to get stuck in the river, as it would sink or settle in the 
sandy bottom, and so would a mule ; therefore our teams were 
doubled up to twelve animals, aud the wagon beds were raised 
to keep the goods dry. 

Here they started me out — or in — with the first wagon 
again. I declared that I could not get through with such a 
team, but with another driver with me, and our Moses insisting, 
that "I could as well as anybody, if I only thought so," and by 
him leading out until his mule floundered in the treacherous 
sand, which is drifted in waves and heaps, we did come out 
on the opposite side — about three-quarters of a mile the way 
we took ; but in returning, having no wagon to steady them, the 
mules, chains, harness and doubletrees got in a tangled mess, 
so it seemed that half of the team was down or off their feet 
about all the time ; had all I could do to hang on to the harness ; 
so we finally landed — the wheelers ahead — a quarter of a mile 



40 Out West. 

from the right landing place in the dark, as night had over- 
taken us. I thought I deserved hanging, or else songs of glory, 
but others considered it about the proper and usual perform- 
ance of a tenderfoot — only a needed bath for man and mules. 
The other teams got along better, being kept in the "track" 
where it was somewhat packed and less miry, as I did after- 
wards. 

An ox train loaded with a quartz mill for Idaho was cross- 
ing the same time we did. Hitched to one of the wagons, 
loaded with a large boiler, were thirty-eight yoke of cattle - they 
said forty-eight, but I am willing to knock off the difference as I 
did not count them. The boss of the train would take no un- 
necessary chances, and could afford to move slow, as he would 
get twenty or perhaps thirty cents a pound freight. However, 
it might have been a God-send to the outside stock holders 
had the whole thing and business been sunk in the sand. As 
to the large teams, the idea is, that a good portion of the 
animals need not be pulling at all, can be entirely off their feet, 
and there would be enough besides to pull them up and along, 
and thus keep the wagon moving. Some of the drivers rode 
the cattle while others were on horseback. 

Here, on the north bank of the Platte, I took my first drink, 
tasted liquor the first time in my life. Being taken with a 
bad chill, they rolled me up in blankets by the camp fire, and 
fed me on brandy from a tin cup ; it, however, did not prove 
fatal, as I have never taken a pint altogether since. 

"We now took up Poll Creek, and travelled the general 
route since taken by the IT. P. K. E., leaving the stage route 
for a time, as it went around by Denver ; arrived in Salt Lake 
City in sixty days from the Missouri river— about twent}- miles 
a day, which was unusual fast time for a loaded train. 

As to the country between the Platte and Salt Lake, we 
saw a few moist, contracted bottoms, where wild hay was being 
made to supply the overland stage stock ; there is a good deal 
of bunch grass country besides, which, if the grass was cut, 
would yield about seven hundred pounds of hay to the acre, or 
less ; so when occupied as a grazing country, as it has since 
been, it could easily be over-stocked. There is much land 
covered with sage brush, which indicates more soil and moist- 



Life on the Plains. 41 



ure, and where it grows rank, and the ground can be irrigated. 
Anything agreeable to the climate can be grown in profusion, 
if not destroyed by grasshoppers or other insect pests. 

There is timber on the mountain ranges and s>purs, but 
often so distant and scrubby, that it is said, in some localities 
telegraph poles cost twenty dollars, or more, each. 

Saw quite a number of wagon trains and of Indians ; met 
quite an emigration from California and Oregon to the states ; 
saw some prairie dogs, wolves, jack-rabbits and sage-hens, and 
heard of buffalo and other large game. 

We took turns at cooking, while others brought the water 
and fuel — which is generally buffalo or cattle " chips," or sage 
brush. A couple at a time relieved the regular herders, by 
herding the mules mornings and evenings ; and one at a time 
guarded the train at night — though he often slept all the same, 
so that one of the boys offered to take the whole job, declaring 
"it did not tire him any." 

The same degree of daring and low cunning necessary in 
successfully stealing a single horse in the states, or in robbing 
a store, a customer, or client, if displayed here on the plains by 
a secret gang of a dozen men, could have captured our whole 
train most any night, notwithstanding we were all armed with 
rifles and revolvers. Moreover, the fact that train animals are 
seldom molested, though feeding a mile or two from camp, and 
perhaps 300 from even a military post, shows the Indians to be 
more honest, or else more cowardly, than is generally repre- 
sented. 

Suppose the working masses in the states should rise in 
their necessity and might, strip off their ill-gotten possessions, 
and banish to the plains by themselves the "charitable" tribes 
among them, who live chiefly by their wits, tricks and hidden 
vices off of other men's toil, with none to labor, earn, produce 
for them, or to watch and make tliem afraid ; they thus being 
compelled to work, steal, or starve, and the country ivas their own! 

Could a train, as inviting as ours, pass through their 
country without tribute or plunder ? Not much ! And instead 
of an occasional grave with a head-board rudely marked," killed 
by Indians," etc., whole grave yards would appear. 

The trip to me was a novel and, on the whole, a pleasant 



42 Out West. 

one ; an agreeable enougli company : nobody striving for 
trouble or imposition, never a figbt, or' even a hand on a pistol 
for protection or for crime, and I disremember hearing the 
captain or proprietor speak scarcely an angry or insolent word 
— certainly not to me. Our journey ended. Mr. White told 
our Moses (Geo. Striugham) to " take the boys to the best hotel 
in town," where he boarded us at three dollars a day, while un- 
loading, etc., in a storehouse he had procured to dispose of his 
sfoods : he having left us several davs back to be here in ad- 
vance. This was also his first experience in the West. 







H 

6 

o 



(43) 



CHAPTER III. 

Salt Lake City and Valley. — Salt Lake. — Climate and batliing. — Eemained 
a month. — Then made a trip of a month on the plains. — Caught in a 
blizzard. — Sixty-two frozen mules for breakfast, Oct. 14th. — A rough 
tramj) of 180 miles in the snow. — Back to Salt Lake. — Dreaming of 
home ! — As to the hardships of trains snow-bound in the mountains. 
— "Work for a Mormon dignitary. — The "mighty Host of Zion." — 
How they whipped Johnson's U. S. Army in 1861, etc. — Mountain- 
Meadow massacre, etc. — Leave Salt Lake on horseback for St. George, 
350 miles south. — Takes a month. — Mormon farms and villages. — 
Their system of settlement, etc. — Climate, soil, mountains. — A mouth 
in Si". George as "Dodge's Clerk." — On an Indian raid. — Made a trip 
to the extreme southern settlements. — "What for ! — Cotton country. 
— Mountain of rock salt. — ^A true, comprehensive description of the 
Mormons. — How they live and deal Avith each other and A\-ith Gentiles. 
— Their religion and government, as they eeali.y aee in practice. — 
Their virtues, crimes and danger. 

oALT Lake City, with its gardens, trees and rippling brooks, 
spread out in a spacious valley, made fruitful and charming by 
a cheerful climate, water and industry, presented a beautiful, 
pleasing appearance to ns, having seen little else than bleak, 
burnt, craggy desolation for twelve hundred miles and sixty 
days. — 

The valley to the north extends about a hundred miles and 
is about eight or ten miles wide, on an average. This is water- 
ed mostly by Bear and Webber rivers, which empty in Salt Lake. 

To the south the valley reaches about seventy miles, 
averaging, say, two miles in breadth, is watered and fertilized by 
the river Jordan, also emptying into Salt Lake, where the 
waters of this and Bear river, besides other streams, evaporate, 
leaving their salts in the lake ; it, like the dead sea, having no 
outlet. The country is alkaline or salty, and the atmosphere is 
very light and dry ; the former accounts for the vast amount of 
salt in the lake, and the latter for the evaporation in excess of 
that in a moist climate. Is 4200 feet above the sea, 90 miles 
long, 20 to 25 miles broad, 15 to 20 feet deep. Six pails of 
water are said to make one of salt. Health seekers should note 
that here is a mild, dry mountain climate with sea breeze, and 
bathing in cold brine or warm sulphur. 

(.44) 



All about the Mormons. 45 



I batlied in the famed warm sulphur springs, where Dr. 
Kobinson was assassinated for desiring to own them by the U. 
S. laws, when the brethren wanted it ; attended the theatre and 
church meetings;— remember hearing Yice-Presideut Kimlial 
from the pulpit tell the choir to "sing something lively, as he 
enjoj-ed that kind of music best even at a theatre." Ate apri- 
cots, peaches and other fruit from the acre gardens that adorn 
nearly every residence in town. There being a stream of 
mountain water flowing on either side of every street for irri- 
gation, etc. Talked with men from the mining and stock 
regions of the surrounding country, who come for hundreds of 
miles on business, to winter, and spend their money in enjoj-- 
ment here, as a place, that surely has many attractions, even as 
a permanent place of residence. 

Kemaiued here about a month, part of the time driving 
team about town ; then for another month drove a six mule 
team in a grain supply train for the Overland Stage Company 
at forty dollars a month, until caught, the 13th of October, in a 
blizzard on the plains ; were confined to our beds in the wagons 
for two nights and a day ; nor could we scarcely move on 
account of the cold and the snow drifting in and over us. 
When the storm abated we crawled out, broke up feed boxes 
for fires, and went to look for the stock— 124 heads; were in the 
brush (on Green river), where we had left them, but just half 
of them, 62, were frozen to death, and in all the ghastly attitudes 
of cruel agony. Left the wagons where we had camped, drove 
the remainder of the mules to a valley, six or seven miles away, 
where it was quite warm, but little snow had fallen, and left 
them for the winter in care of providence, who never tempers 
the winds for an unfortunate and abused mule. 

Three or four Mormon teams were engaged to take us with 
them to Salt Lake— 180 miles ; but had to walk, camp and 
sleep out in the snow, a foot or two deep. There is nothing 
terrible about sleeping in the snow or a snow storm for a night 
or two, with plenty of blankets, no matter how cold it is ; but 
to continue doing so and travel, the blankets get wet or damp, 
so that one dreams of home, s^oeet home ! 

In accordance with the custom of the country, as a sub- 
stitute for taxes, prisons, courts and lawyer gangs, I had a 



46 Salt Lake City and Utah. 

navy-revolver up to this time ; but never having needed it, and 
it being cumbersome, disposed of it, and have never owned a 
fire-arm since, except a shot gun; though on a few occasions 
have found it necessary to carry a pistol for protection in kind. 

There is scarcely any necessary occasion to lose horses or 
mules by cold or starvation in the far West. ]f they are not 
over-worked, they will stand any one storm. And there are 
geuial valleys of sunshine, and grass in sight or accessible from 
most anywhere ; also rabbits and other game are quite plentiful 
for parties short of rations. Therefore, the heroism (?) of men 
in command, for living on starved and frozen mules and for 
other hardships endured in the mountains, is a, humbug and out- 
rage. The mules should have been rollicking in a friendly 
vale, and the party living on jack-rabbits and venison. 

Found the weather warm and pleasant when Ave got to Salt 
Lake Valley again. Being acquainted with a young man 
(working for Gen. D. H. Wells) who wanted a vacation for a 
week or two, I took his place— hauling lumber from a saw- 
mill to town. 

Wells was third in authority in the Mormon Church and 
Masonic Order ; had two wives (sisters), at this, his principal 
home, where they lived in good style, and several others in 
other parts of town. His appearance to an unadvised outsider 
was that of a clever gentleman. He commanded the Mormon 
Militia, which were now having their annual training. I had 
bought a horse and saddle — to travel on my own hook to learn 
more of this famed secret brother- and sisterhood of masons — 
loaned it to one of the boys to attend the training near town, 
and the saddle blanket being a fancy one, the General himself 
did not disdain the use of it from a wandering Gentile, in com- 
manding the "mighty host," the same that "whipped the 
United States" under the renowned Albert Sidney Johnson, 
President Buchanan and company, in 1861. Or rather, "God 
did it, ' the secret brethren say. 

To an inexperienced outsider, it is a real mystery how 
Brigham Young and secret brethren out-generalled, out-dip- 
lomated, out-witted and stripped our Government agents, and 
people in that squabble. They had done it before, and have 
done it ever since. 



All about the Mormons. 47 

Those who worship secrecy, tact and success alone, should 
plant flowers on his grave and revere the name of Brigham 
Young, 

They had committed many excesses and horrible crimes 
against outsiders in their secret order and tribal ways ; openly, 
as well as secrelily, dominated, repudiated and defied the 
Government, while Brigham Young was made Governor of the 
Gentiles in Utah, (being already chief of the Mormons), John 
D. Lee, Indian Agent, etc., etc. They having more influence at 
Washington than full-fledged American Citizens, because they 
had brother masons there — sent by thoughtless outsiders. 

At last to appease public sentiment, by throwing dirt in its 
eyes, and to blindly aid and assist the secret brethren, an army 
of near 10,000 men, richly equipped with wagon and pack trains 
and supplies for ten years, was sent out to Utah ; with the usual 
catering claptrap and out-cry of "enforcing the laAvs and 
crushing the Mormons." Then all was turned over - almost 
given to the before declared enem}^ but now "repenitent and 
industrious citizens," who, meanwhile, among other outrages, 
butchered in cold blood 130 men, women and children, appro- 
priating entirely the wealthy emigrant train, stock and fortunes 
of their victims. All this with the utmost impunity and almost 
in sight of a court-house of justice (?). 

That was a white man's secret order, tribal tribute, led by 
a ring favorite of the Government— John D. Lee. 

And right there to-day is one of the "grave yards ! " 

Wagons, mules, harness and fire-arms were most needed 
by the brethren at that time in their business. They worked 
diplomacy, tact and treachery on the Kentucky-California- 
bound emigrants, thus disarming them, but could not secure 
their property in peace without killing them, so they could not 
be "revengeful and make trouble." 

But they could get the Government trains securely by dip- 
lomacy and secret intrigue, without killing a man, woman or 
child, though they paid a trifle of the money, meanwhile filched 
from the Government in the deal. 

The army was disbanded at Camp Floyd when the sup- 
plies had been brought to their doors, where they were "sold" 
to the brethren, whom Officials are secretly sworn to assist 



48 Salt Lake City and Utah. 

and befriend, and whose secrets they are sworn to "ever conceal 
and never reveal." 

Wagons worth two hundred and fifty dollars there then 
sold for fifteen dollars. Arms worth twenty dollars for two 
dollars, etc., etc. 

Brigham "bought" $30,000 worth of pork at one cent a 
pound, and then resold it to Gentiles at sixty cents a pound, 
etc., etc. 

Much of the supplies had just previously been bought here 
of the Mormons at fabulous prices. 

Great quantities of leather, harness, cavalry equipments, 
clothing, blankets, small stores, etc., etc., etc., were likewise 
turned over to the secret brethren, who dominate and direct 
the action of Government and Courts within their influence. 

I was told that they were even allowed to run off Govern- 
ment mules by the band, and then sell them back to the Govern- 
ment thus prostituted, which then turned them over to the 
brethren for a song. The Mormons were thus greatly assisted 
in their business at the expense of the people, and their era of 
prosperity began at these fruitful victories over the Govern- 
ment. Mormons believe this out-come to have been secretly 
fixed, when the expedition was gotten up and sent to them. 

The matter of the Mountain-Meadow massacre, and other 
like tributes to secrecy, they postponed with secret influence 
at court, for twenty years, until Royal Master Lee had gotten 
in bad standing in the order, and his life was about run out 
anyhow, when the brethren consented to give what was left of 
him alone up, as a sacrifice to appease and blind the people ; 
as if they had lost their secret influence at court, and justice 
now prevailed. This was to be a receipt in full for such 
cowardly, treacherous, brutal murder for plunder of hundreds 
of disarmed men, women and children by loell-knoiun masons 
under the shadow of Court-houses of Justice (?) and the United 
States flag. 

That company of emigrants could successfully defend 
themselves against the Indians, but could not do so against a 
gang of secret ring favorites in the Government. Nor can any- 
hody when the courts are thus subverted. 

About November first, started on my travels, horseback, to 




< 

d 

O 

o 



50 Salt Lake City and Utah. 

the South. Weather in the valley was warm and delightful, 
while snow could be seen drifting and flying high up on the 
mountain peaks. One of these, Mt. Nebo, was said to be 
over 11,000 feet above the sea. 

A hundred miles, and I was out of Salt Lake Yalley, over 
the summit into a mountainous desert region (with some 
Avatered spots) sloping towards the Colorado river, some four 
hundred miles to the South. 

Salt Lake Valley is the only farming country of a.nj mag- 
nitude between the 98tli longitude and California, except far to 
the North. This valley is thickly settled by the Mormons, 
with a considerable number of Gentiles at and to the North of 
Salt Lake City. 

The Mormons live in villages with extensive lots for gar- 
dens and fruit purposes ; have their farming and pasture lauds 
fenced in common, and dig and own their water ditches like- 
wise. 

They adopted this system of living in towns as a protection 
against the Indians ; but as they are confined to small farms of 
say, twenty-five acres, of which there are ten to fifteen 
thousand, the disadvantage in living apart from them is off-set 
by the saving in fencing, and social and school advantages 
gained. 

Wherever a body or spot of soil is susceptible of irrigation, 
there is a Mormon village. The principal ones of these settle- 
ments, for some 75 miles after leaving Salt Lake ValJe//, are 
Filmore — once the capitol — and Beaver, on Salt Creek and 
twenty-five miles from the Mountain-Meadow graveyard. St. 
George is 350 miles from Salt Lake and on the Bio Virgin ; 
there being some small settlements between Beaver and 
St. George. 

Wandering along leisurely, reached St. George in about a 
month from Salt Lake ; found it a fruitful oasis in the desert, 
nicely situated and laid out and of considerable importance and 
population. Snow seldom lays on the ground ; a climate semi- 
tropical and as salubrious as can be found most anywhere ; en- 
joyed the best appetite here I ever had. The soil is mostly a 
bed of sand, cleared off sage-brush, and water brought on it 
at an expense in labor of twenty to thirty dollars per acre. 



All about the Mormons. 51 

Remained here a month with and working for an intelligent 
Yankee Saint, and they called me "Dodge's Clerk." This is 
how I clerked : Hauled lumber and wood from a mountain, 
twenty to thirty miles off; went on an Indian raid of a few 
days with a local company, commanded by a General ; anyhow, 
he was a clever and agreeable man for the occasion, as were also 
the others of the company. Stock had been stolen from the 
range by the Navajoes, and the company went to overtake them, 
but did not succeed. Took a load of grape roots, cuttings, fig 
trees, and other things, to sell in the then extreme southern 
settlements on the Muddy Creek, 130 miles away, and twenty 
from the head of navigation on the Colorado river. Cotton was 
being raised here. 

Sold out mostly on Sunday, as the saints had gathered to 
worship and do business. Eemember their singing, "Hard 
times come again no more." Sunday is the principal business 
or trading day in mining camps and other new settlements with 
the Gentiles also. 

The religious phase of the Sabbath or Sunday question, as 
to a particular da}^ or date, is a tangled muddle anyway. 
About every day in the week is claimed as such by some 
numerous sect or people. In studying the question we find,, 
that the changes in official calendars and the difference in time,, 
on account of the motion of the earth, makes it too difficult to 
solve, to be honestly certain as to time, so it seems captious 
for people to quarrel as to the same. Let the general govern- 
ment name the dsij, as one of rest for man and beast, and en- 
force its reasonable observance. 

An island and longitude in the Pacific Ocean, according to 
our official calendar, has two Sundays together for any vessel 
sailing West, and none for those sailing East. They must drop 
or gain a Sunday in passing this longitude. 

I also got a load of rock salt at a mountain, or mount, of 
salt there. Much of it is so clear, one can read print through 
it some inches thick. Is mined with drill and powder. 

"Salt Deposits in Nevada. — Vast Fjelds of Pttke Eock Salt to be 
Found in Lincoln County. 

In Ijincoln County, on the Rio Vu'gin, is one of the most remarkable 
deposits of rock salt on the continent, says the Dayton News Reporter. It 



Salt Lake City and Utah. 



is found in liills 500 feet above the level of the valley, and ehemicaUv pure. 
Blocks of it over a foot square are so trausijarent that one may read a 
i:)ai3er throiigh them. So solid is this salt that it must be blasted out the 
same as if it were rock. This deposit of salt lies about three-quarters of 
a mile west of the Rio Virgin and three miles south of the Mormon viDage 
of St. Thomas. There a body of this salt is exposed for a length of nearly 
two miles, which is about half a mile wide and of unknown depth. The 
dejjosit runs north and south and is seen on the surface for a distunce of 
over nine miles. In places the canons have cut through it to a depth of 
sixty feet. At these points the Hiko company formerly blasted out the 
salt requii'ed in working their ores. Tliis great deposit of salt is situated 
at an altitude of 1,100 feet above the level of the sea. It is undoubtedly 
very ancient, as in one jjlace it has been covered by a flow of basaltic rock. 
In other j^laces it is covered to a dei^lh of from one to five feet with vol- 
canic tufa. At Sand Springs, in Churchill County, besides the salt that 
may be shoveled up from the surface, there is found a dei:)osit of rock salt 
fourteen feet in depth. This salt is as transparent as the clearest ice and 
does not contain a particle of any foreign or deleterious substance. It 
may be quarried the same as if it was marble. It is said that one man 
can quarry and wheel out five tons a dr'.y of this salt. It is only necessary 
to grind it to render it fit for table or dairy u>e. Sixty or seventy miles 
north of this, at the eastern base of the Dun Glen range of mountains, is 
the great Humboldt salt field. This is about fifteen miles long and six 
wide. In summer, when the surface water has evajiorated, salt to the 
depth of three or four inches can be scraped up from the surface. 
Beneath the surface is a stratum of pure rock salt of unknown depth. 
This rock salt is so hard, that in order to get it out rapidly it is necessary 
to blast it. Were a branch railroad to run to one of these deposits, salt 
would soon be a cheap article in the United States. As there are in the 
same localities great quantities of soda, borax and other valuable minerals, 
it is probable that the day is not far distant Avhen some of them Avill be 
tapped by branch railroads, which could be cheajjly laid down through 
the level districts. " 

My route to and from the Muddy settlements and Salt 
Bank lay mostly along the Kio Yirgin " river " (as most any 
stream is called in sections where water is scarce), the road 
crossing it in the quick-sand many times. The Indians (Piutes) 
had in cultivation a few patches on this stream, and the Saints 
had started a settlement, or two. But the bottom is too narroAv 
to till, except in garden patches. 

With the exception of bunch-grass, very wide apart, some 
sage and grease brush, the surrounding country is a barren, 
dreary, rocky waste. There is no soil on the highlands, even 



All about the Mormons. 53 

if there Avas water. — The principal wagon route from Salt 
Lake to Los Angeles, Cal., leaves the Rio Virgin by the 
most rugged hill I have ever seen to be travelled over 
much with wagons. It is two or three miles to the top, 
steep, and crossed with ledges of rock. While I was passing 
it, gazing at one of a train, high up on the hill, as the 
wagon Avas being tugged along with a well doubled up 
team ; it broke loose, tumbled back, scattering itself between 
there and the bottom. I passed over the same route afterwards. 

The Mormons, as a people, are as prosperous, contented 
and happy, perhaps, as any other people, who have to earn by 
toil about all they get, and their government is so administered 
that they come very near getting, holding and enjoying all they 
make ; unless the tenth of what they produce, that goes for 
their general protection, welfare and enlargement, be excepted. 
Inasmuch, as they would need no costly protection^ if polygamy 
was not openly practiced by the few, so long as similar secret 
order governments of oath-bound brotherhoods (called "masons" 
etc., instead of "church") are tolerated by the people. 

The most of the Mormons dislike polygamy, and it may 
die. But it is not the Avorst feature of the system of Mormon- 
ism, as to the general governmont and the full-fledged citizens 
of the same, if the government is to be supreme and un- 
controlled by secret alien kingly governments within. 

There are but few salaried officials in the Mormon govern- 
ment — even the bishops draw no pay. The more able and am- 
bitious frequently acquire considerable and exceptional fortune, 
but it is made by rugged industry, or filched from Gentiles. 
They are not permitted to trick or rob each other of their 
property, under any pretext. Lawyers are kept from power 
entirely —they are treated as pests, as grass-hoppers and chine- 
bugs ; except sometimes in dealing with outsiders. It is the 
business of the officials and dignitaries of the order to counsel, 
advise and protect any faithful brother in ordinary business 
pursuits and in their troubles with each other and with out- 
siders. 

In case of trouble with outsiders, assistance is extended in 
usual and natural ways, and also by machinery of the secret 
order, which is worked in the dark. 



54 Salt Lake City and Utah. 

They are a secret masonic order of various degrees, and 
bound together with masonic oaths, although there is nothing 
secret, sly, or mysterious in the first degree, whereby any per- 
son, and Indians in large numbers, are taken into the "church" 
or order without hesitation. They constitute a secret, mystic 
and complete government within, and distinct from that of the 
state ; an irresponsible and foreign government, to luhich they 
swear, loitli masonic oaths, supreme allegiance. 

But yet they are allowed to join in maintaining the forms 
and jDomp of courts and government of the Gentiles, for use in 
dealing with and filching the outsider, and as a fortress of pro- 
tection against them. Making of it a cat's-paw, a tool, a trap, 
a blind, a handy machine, worked and controlled by their 
secret, oath-bound obligations in the dark, where five men may 
overcome and override five thousand true citizens, which is 
very fine for the secret brethren. But the Gentile, or outsider, 
must suffer accordingly, for he has no assurance of security or 
justice, when treated or done for by either of the courts and 
governments thus managed and controlled in the dark. They 
are the power behind the throne, though it may be played so 
fine that, if the victim be ignorant, he does not understand it, 
and will blindly vote to sustain it. 

About the only verdicts rendered hj the courts of Utah 
against Mormons in good standing and influence in the order, 
are secured by special legislation of Congress, which Avould be 
overridden were Utah a state; and even in these comparative few 
cases, they have frequently beaten the cases against them by 
their secret influence in appeals, just as other masons do. 

Polygamy is but a red rag of masonry, the spears and 
knives to stab the government are hid behind it. 

The Chinese, Jews and Indians, in the United States, also 
cherish, maintain, and are governed by, a distinct alien govern- 
ment of their own; a state within the state. But tliey have the 
modesty to refrain, at least openly, from taking part in the 
government of the Republic. The}- do not intrigue and scheme 
for oflice under it, or to judge and govern anybody but them- 
selves, which they do by their own alien governments. They 
love their big sun-flower titles, and pagan pomp and "mysteries" 
of idolatry, and worship the shades of Mogul Kings. 



All about the Mormons. 55 

Though such people be naturalized or born iu this country, 
they are not real citizens at heart of the Republic, but are 
practically foreigners, aliens, owing first allegiance and belong- 
ing to their own peculiar, secret, class and tijibal governments, 
ivherein is their supreme authority and laiu, ivhich they are sivorn 
by horrible, blood-curdling, masonic oaths and j^cnalties, to cherish 
and obey! 

What then becomes of our Government with these masons 
in ofiice ? 

Where is there any standing room for it with them in 
command ? 

They cut it up and prostitute it as they do the marriage 
relation, and wave it as another red rag — in another phase of 
their play— to divert the sight and sense of the j)eople, where- 
by they are thus shaded to get in their deadly work in the 
dark, thus working for universal conquest. 

The religious phase and the polygamy rag of Mormonism 
is but lightly considered by the more intelligent Mormons. It 
is their Government that interests and attaches them. They do 
not conceal this in individual discussion. They know the cor- 
ruption and prostitution of our Government so well, that, 
instead of joining to reform and clean it, they declare it an 
"ignominious and hopeless failure." 

And we must honestly concede that this is partly true. 
For, with the boundless natural wealth from ocean to ocean, 
the country even alreadj^ stocked with buffalo, elk, deer, fish 
and turkey, — the mass of the people ought not to be mere 
slaves to unrequited toil, corruption and tyranny. And could 
not have been much less prosperous under any other form of 
government. 

The Mormons, indeed, even under their masonic-pagan 
theocracy or kingdom, have been more prosperous than the 
mass of real American citizens that have surrounded them. 

This is also true of other secret masonic gangs elsewhere, 
and among the people surrounding them. 

But they have stabbed, drawn, sucked and fattened on the 
heart's blood of the Government and the people. 

Indeed, the prosperity of many an indiridual of the gang 



56 Salt Lake City and Utah. 

represents the downfall, ravage and misery of hundreds of the 
people, — men, -women and little children. 

Such "prosperity" (?) need not be boasted of to be be- 
lieved. There ara too many victims who too keenly feel and 
sitfer theftwt of such "prosperity" continually 

At heart they do not like or respect even the form, or the 
great and beautiful sentiment of our government, which is the 
religion of real liberty loving Americans, who, in the face of 
all history and suffering, will fight to maintain it, work and 
vote to reform it, as their only hope for liberty and justice, 
and will never give it up for any gang, though they irrigate the 
ground with their blood ! 

Disdaining and detesting both the spirit and form of our 
government, as not secret, selfish, pagan and kingly enough 
for them, therefore, whenever they take part in it, it is not for 
it to Avork evenly, or to reform it, or clean it of the gang ; but 
to secretly conspire to corrupt, debauch and use it for a cat's- 
paw io filch the people, and for a fortress to shield them against 
their victims. 

But while scheming and playing for place and power in it, 
with brazen sarcasm, they sing patriotic songs and wave the 
American flag. 

A strong, centralized government like England or Germany 
might, if any, safely tolerate various foreign secret government 
rmgs within their own, as they cannot exert as much influence 
and power there as in a republic. Yet these governments 
have had to watch and keep down all secret, alien govern- 
ments and rings within their own, in order to keep their own 
power supreme and from being defied and overthrown. 

I believe, that belonging to any secret sworn brotherhood, 
disqualifies a person for the holding of any public office in 
Germany and other governments in Europe, Central and South 
America. Consequently Jews and other masons belonging to 
secret alien governments, are punished for their crimes like 
other people. 

This has to he so in rejmblics if they are to endure. 

All who vote or hold office under the general or state govern- 
ments, should be dependent on that government alone for 
protection, justice and government ; so that all would be 



All about the Mormons. 57 

interested in its reform and purity; making the one govern- 
ment simple, safe, supreme and evenly just to all alike. 

Let those who are so selfish, clannish, crafty, sly-sneaking 
in the dark, grasping pagan and kingly as to not be satisfied 
with this, live and do as other and legal aliens do. For, aliens 
and often traitors they are. 

" When bad men combine [even by blood-curdling oaths 

in the dark], the good must associate, else they will fall one 

by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." 

"A monarchy may be free, whilst a republic may be a 

tyranny." When "servile millions kiss the spoUers' rod, crouch 

at their feet and tremble at their nod." 

As to the Mormon wing or phase of this vital subject, let 
us not forget that, like other communities, multitudes and 
orders, there are good, bad and indifferent people among them. 
A Gentile might live and deal with them for 3-ears without any 
trouble, if himself be just, and he does not oppose their system. 
Being friendly towards them, should he get into trouble Avith 
another Gentile or a Mormon ; the Mormon courts, as well as 
the other, are open to them. As they are both controlled by 
the masons, they stand a better show for justice in the more 
simple Mormon court, and if justice is what they want, both 
being Gentiles, they are quite surely satisfied with the result_ 
therein, which is not delayed, and they do not have to hui/ it ' 
there being no "bar." 

But if one is outspoken, or otherwise earnestly opposes 
their secret order system of government, he does not stand the 
ghost of a show for justice in Utah. 

In the case of a Gentile against a Mormon, or a Mormon 
against a Gentile, the outsider stands just the same show for 
justice that he does outside of Utah in a court or courts con- 
trolled by members of secret order brotherhood governments. 

Any observer can know, and all voters should know, the 
kind of a show that is, without learning by hard and miserable 
experience. 

" The whole machinery of the state, all the apparatus of 

the system of government, and its varied workings, end in 

simply bringing twelve good men into a box." 

As a rule, the Mormons deal honestly among themselves ; 



58 Salt Lake City andUtah. 

sometimes, however, they have to kill or imprison one of their 
number for horse stealing, betrayal, or other crimes against a 
brother. They transact their business and run their courts 
tvWiout lawyers or other vermin, to which they owe much of 
their prosperity and peace. But this could he done just as icell by 
the 2)eopIe under our form of government. No honest court re- 
quires a lawyer in or about it. And the same price paid for 
their scalps by the state, as that now paid for more human and 
less destructive vermin, would make them harmless. 

The Mormons have no orthodox or salaried preachers. 
Everybody is expected to be able to render something of a 
moral speech in meeting, and, being raised to it, they are more 
apt and able in that way than other congregations. They ab- 
hor profanity, and think about all Gentiles to be immoral and 
profane. It was said by some, that I was the only Gentile they 
knew, who was not profane. They tell of mules, gotten of 
Gentiles, that could not be managed, or made to pull, unless 
swore at by note. 

Their poor and distressed are liberally provided for from 
a general fund ; there are none of them beggars. 

A large portion of them are emigrants from other countries 
and their children ; there are some from every section of the 
United States and Canada. The foreigners are principally 
English, Danes, Welsh, Norwegians, etc. , As the Mormons 
settled in Utah in 1818, and were quite a body before in Mis- 
souri and Illinois, a majority of them were " born in the church" 
or order, and on American soil. They are masons therefore 
more of necessity than of choice, —which cannot be said of 
Gentile masons, etc. They are now about 300,000 strong. 

The founders, chiefs, etc., were and are Yankee free-masons. 
They can pay to their brethren in Congress, courts and army 
big sums of money for bribery purposes and their ^mutual 
masonic obligations, and death penalties for betrayal insures 
secrecy and safety ; and they are bound to assist their brethren 
without pay. 

The Mormon endowment house ceremonies, oaths, obliga- 
tions, penalties, etc., etc., are masonic. 

The founders of the church-order set themselves up as an- 
other Moses or Mohammed, and their Sunday school books 




Ph 



(59) 



60 Salt Lake City and "Utah. 

teach it as truth as to Moses. Their secret order " church " is, 
like other specuLative or spurious masonry, founded on hum- 
bug pagan "mysteries." Their bible being discovered and 
attached with about the same silly legend as that of the "Great- 
est jewel and mystery" of speculative masonr}^ 

They have the "mystery" bible of their own, but use ours 
principally, in which they are well versed. They have much 
of it memorized. They are much given to prayer, and always 
pray for salvation through Jesus. Not all of their dignitaries 
practice polygamy, and, according to the records of the "courts 
of justice," there are but few cases of polj-gamy in Utah. But 
according to my observations and more reliable information 
than ring-ridden courts, about one married man in ten of them 
is a polygamist. Though, for saying this of any one of them, 
he could prosecute me for libel at the people's expense, and 
say, " Damn you, prove it," and I could not establish the plain 
fact in the courts. Such is their secret influence and power at 
court. And it is as wide and extensive as masonry. 

The greatest comfort and protection a polygamist's wife has 
is in her children (they call the other wives of their father 
"aunt"). A boy will not see his mother abused or discarded 
if he can help it, which they often do. Still several sisters will 
frequently marry one man, one after the other, and the latter 
ones ought to know pretty near what they are about — as near 
as you or I could tell them. 

Those of the saints who have travelled about and abroad, 
preach of the immorality and depravity, and dangers of the 
outside world, and — like in other secret lodges — picture Utah 
and the folds of the order as the only place where virtue and 
truth is regarded and protected. 

They also make it appear, that all those who have taken an 
active part against them at any time, have been accursed by 
God and man ; that many of them have repented, and beg of 
them in humility and tears for mercy and forgiveness. 

If according to the courts there is so little polygamy in 
Utah, or if it be no crime ; nor a crime to make an occasional 
killing and tribute against outsiders — as is done by the gang 
everywhere with impunity — then the Mormons are an except- 
ionally moral, virtuous, civil, cheerful, industrious and prosper- 



Alt. about the Mormons. 61 

ous people. By the court records tbey are most exception- 
ally virtuous. And if these questionable deeds are the 
work of a small element only, which I belie\e to be the case, 
then they are that anyway, and in truth. 

In four respects the Mormons are as far in advance of 
the Gentiles, as John Brown was of the republican party. 

First. — In that they permit no gangs of parasites or artful 
tricksters to practice among them, so they all know and 
understand their laws alike ; cases are judged and decided on 
their merits ; and not being so many middlemen, they get the 
profit of their labor. 

Second. — They first made woman suffrage universal, and 
they were no more "insulted" at the polls in Utah than at the 
post-ofiices. Those who would keep politics too secret, corrupt 
and unclean for their wives, sisters and daughters to know or 
touch, when their welfare and happiness is so greatly depend- 
ent on its purity, and who think it more out of place for an 
American woman to vote, than for an English woman to be 
chief ruler and make political speeches, should not complain 
when they reap the result. 

Third.^ — They carry out and enforce their temperance 
principles and laws, without flaws, quirks or foolishness. 
There are hardly any saloons, gambling, or prostitution known 
in their community. 

Fourth. — In their management of the Indians. 

And yet, an outsider really has not equal security or even 
justice anywhere where their alien government or secret in- 
fluence controls the government or courts, as could be vividly 
shown by the miserable experience of many falsely imprisoned, 
or robbed of their property, and by the bleached bones of so 
man}' others that have been "run over the ridge." 

Having, by secret intrigue, conquered the United States 
Army, etc., when in their infancy, and Congress and the courts 
ever since, they have strong hopes of complete control and of 
universal conquest. Polygamy is their red rag in the conflict. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Travellers I met in Utah. — Leave Utah for the Los Angeles, Cal., country. 
— The couipauy I travel with. — Danites. — The Indians on the roatl. — 
A Mormon "miracle." — Intliau dialect. — Sand storm. — A mine in the 
desert. — The region from St. George to California. — Arizona. — San 
Bernardino. — Los Angeles, and that country. — Climate, soil, people 
and business in 1867 and 1884. — Land, titles, etc. 

On the roads, or by the ways in Utah, I met, or fell in with — 
besides the local travel — wandering Gentiles like myself, army 
deserters — who were aided by the Mormons, as they hate and 
detest the Government they prostitute — companies of miners 
on horse- and mule-back, with camping outfits, from Montana, 
Idaho, Arizona, Mexico and other sections, bound for other 
fiekls abounding in riches for them, in their imaginations and 
faith. Years afterwards I again met some of the very same in 
other places, they were still prospecting. 

Soon after returning to St. George with my load of salt, in 
January 1867, I left the Mormon country for Los Angeles, 
Southern California, 450 miles distant from St. George, and 800 
miles from Salt Lake City, much of which is wagon-wheel 
measurement. 

The company I travelled with was composed of three 
Mormons with their families, going to join another wing of the 
church which is presided over by a son of the prophet Joseph 
Smith, and is gathered principally at St. Bernardino, Cal., — 
they do not practice polygamy, which, I may here state, is not 
taught in the teachings of Joseph Smith, their founder. They 
considered it prudent to call their departure "a visit," until 
they got well on their journey, on account of the Danites of 
masonry. Also a wandering Canadian ; a mining expert — on 
his way to report to his company at San Francisco as to the 
mines recently discovered in south-eastern Nevada ; and Mr. 
Clark, with a hand, as he had two wagons with six-horse teams. 
He was chief of the party : a Mormon and polygamist, a clever 
man of exceptional large and wide practical intelligence and 
experience in the West and the world. Was going to Los 
Angeles for some stores and general store-goods for himself 

(62) 



California. 63 



and neighbors. Had made the round trip to Los Angeles from 
Salt Lake or other settlements over this route twenty times on 
the same kind of business. 

The Indians living on the road, knowing him as their friend 
and customer, were glad to see him and called him "Dan." 
He left corn with them — giving them a portion — to feed on his 
return ; as we were now travelling over a vast mountainous, 
never to be reclaimed desert waste, destitute of soil, grass and 
even sage-brush in large portions of it for 250 miles, and very 
destitute of water, so each wagon was provided with a barrel 
for carrying water, and the animals had sometimes to do with 
corn or barley, without water or grass. 

At the springs and camping places are living or camping 
little bands of the most destitute and degraded Indians I had 
or have ever seen. They live mostly on a species of cactus, 
roots, snakes, lizards, etc. The shelled corn we gave them 
they would but slightly roast in the ashes, and flour they 
would make into a half cooked mush, and the whole group, big 
and little, eat it hot out of the kettle with their delicate lingers, 
which they apparently never wash. Are composed largely of 
renegades from different regular tribes, they being in bad 
standing and more or less out-lawed. 

Whenever we made a camp where there was some grass 
anywhere near, "Dan" would have the Indians turn over their 
bows (backed with sinew) and arrows (their only weapons) to 
him, and then turn our stock over to them to take out to grass, 
herd, and bring them in in the morning, saying, that if they 
wanted to run them off, they would do so anyway, and were more 
apt to steal them if he acted more distrustful towards them by 
the little guarding that we could do in a part of us going with 
them ; besides, they valued him as an old friend and regular 
customer. He had always thus trusted even these renegades, 
and they had never betrayed him. And it was their country — 
all they had in the world. 

After leaving St. George we forded the Rio Virgin river 
twenty-eight times — sometimes following in the quick-sand 
bed of it for a road— before we left it to climb the big hill to 
the west. This done, we had to return the stock way down 
back to the river for grass and water, as it was twenty-five miles 



64 Utah to Arizona. 



to the next water and grass, over a rocky waste, which camp was 
on the stream 3Iuddy, that was settled on far to the south-east 
by the Mormons. Forty or fifty hard looking and nearly naked 
Indians gathered about us here, as was the case at the camping 
places beyond. 

The next stretch to water was about seventy miles to Vagas 
creek. Then water got so plenty that there was a little spring 
every twenty or thirty miles, till we got to a forty-five mile 
stretch, and there was no feed for three or four miles around 
the end of it. 

The next dry stretch was fifty miles, followed by one of 
only thirty-five, which brought us down to the Mohave creek, 
where it was called the "fork of the road." (160 miles from Los 
Angeles). One fork leading south into Arizona to Camp 
Cada, Prescot, etc. It being travelled by big freight teams, 
with five hundred dollar wagons, having high wheels and tires 
four or five inches wide for the burning sands of this Colorado 
desert, and often loaded with even hay for government stock 
hundreds of miles away in Arizona; government trains and 
troops, to rob the Indians out of such a country, and to enrich 
the gang ; a stage-coach and the mail, prospectors' outfits, etc. 

We took the other fork leading to the sea shore. 

We passed — about a hundred miles back in the desert— an 
abandoned barren quartz mine, that had been extensively 
prospected with shafts, tunnels, etc. ; and this without an 
expensive quartz mill. In order to sell mining stock, it is 
usually necessary to buy and be at work on a big mill — the 
bigger the better — as an assurance that the thing will pay to 
work. 

While the Sheriff was returning to San Bernardino from 
attaching the mine (?) for labor and supplies - as is also the 
usual thing — he was killed by the Indians. 

A child in our party was taken sick so bad, we thought it 
would die on the road ; so the brethren gathered around it 
and performed their sacred rite of " Laying on of hands " with 
prayer ; and as in a day or two the little saint was running 
about, their faith was kept whole. This " miracle " may be in 
their Sunday-school books now, and highly colored, to 
strengthen the faith of future generations. 



California. 65 

One of the party had an iron ex-wagon, and of course on a 
rough road an axle was broken off at the shoulder. But these 
western mountaineers are never put back much by a mishap of 
that kind. In this case an unnecessary bar of iron was soon 
taken off the wagon, run through the wheel, and lashed to the 
axle. These people will set wagon tires on the road, shoe 
stock, make and fit most any part of a wagon without tools, 
except an ax, bit, chisel and monkey-wrench. 

Some Piute Indian words :— crovio — horse; murat — mule ; 
nepute or ninnie — little ; kawit— not any ; tu-wich — very much; 
tiri — tired ; sco-ri — cold ; shangry — hungry ; pe-up — big ; wino 
— good ; spits — spring ; congaroo — run or go fast ; shot-cup — 
food ; muggi — give me ; pe-nacka — mineral ; camusha — another; 
napeas — money ; oma— you. 

The bottom of the Mohave (moharvey), along which we 
travelled for many miles, was settled in a rude way by hard 
looking citizens, who kept some little accommodations, canned 
fruits and other goods for sale, as are usually found at 
frequented camping places on the much travelled roads in the 
West. 

The atmosphere was now more humid, mellow, and on ac- 
count of the change, which in itself is invigorating, it was more 
bracing, and was so delightful and spring-like from here on to 
the coast, that I have often regretted that my lot was not cast 
in such a lovely clime and country. 

Wild budding grape vines, green grass, — in places all 
over the ground, — flowers, trees, and even flowing water and 
singing birds could now be appreciated by us and enjoyed. 

No wonder Mohammed had the Moslem heaven well sup- 
plied with beautiful shaded rivers, green grass and flowers. 

A sand storm on the Mohave clouded the picture for a 
day, so we had to lay over on account of it. 

A few days travel now and we had reached and passed 
over the Sierra Nevada mountain range, and were in San 
Bernardino, where we tarried a day or two. 

This place contained (1867) about four thousand inhabit- 
ants, of Mormons, Gentiles and Mexicans, the latter being 
Gentiles also. It is in a valley made fertile and enjoyable by 
a semi-tropical climate and a good supply of water. Wood and 
5 



66 Utah to Arizona. 



saw timber is also plentiful on the mountain near b}*, whicli is 
a rare advantage over most other places in this climate. It has 
the " wood water and grass," that the miner and camping 
traveller so often inquires about, also the soil necessary for 
independent homes. 

This site was included in a Mexican grant, and was bought 
by the Mormons in early days, for a settlement of their own. 
But at the time the army entered Utah to fight the Mormons 
and enforce the United States laws, — as was supposed by out- 
siders — and the Mountain-Meadow massacre, and other tributes 
were levied against outsiders by the secret government, of 
which these Mormons were subjects, the anger of the Gentiles 
here-abouts, together with a call or order from the Grand 
Worthy head of their government, made them abandon their 
homes here and travel in haste to join their brother subjects in 
arms, at Salt Lake and beyond. 

Notwithstanding the great disparity in numbers, arms and 
equipments at that time, they say " we thought that we might 
have to whip the United States Army." However, the Mormons 
would fight, if diplomacy, secret influence and intrigue failed in 
securing their enlargement ; which is not probable, so long as 
they can meet on their level so many secret brethren in the 
United States Government and courts, who are secretly sworn 
to befriend them. 

I met and talked with parties on the road, here, and at Los 
Angeles, who had had experience in Arizona. Many of them 
would praise that country as rich in minerals (and perhaps it 
is in a few little spots) and in fertile valleys, saying, they would 
soon return to their valuable prospects or interests there, etc. 
But on close acquaintance they would curse and swear and 
paw the ground, declaring that any one who could be deluded 
to think of living, or making anything legitimately in such a God- 
forsaken, howling, burning wilderness — " where it rains only 
sand, and the only vegetation is thorns and thistles, which 
differ only in variety" — should be assisted in their going, and 
learn their folly as they had done. And the phrase "Arizona 
liar" was a common one. Instead of giving the lie direct, one 
need only ask the gentleman "if he had been to Arizona." 

I now comprehended the enticing tales like that of the 









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o 

J. 



68 California. 



"bullets of gold shot by the Apaches," — the "rich mines 
worked and left by the Aztecs," or later by others " driven out 
by Indians," etc., etc. Afterwards I knew different parties, 
well equipped with animals, arms, provisions, money, etc., to 
spend many months in prospecting there, but they always left 
it, dead-broke, disgusted and often on foot. 

It seemed there was no way to learn the truth of that 
section, except by experience or instinct alone. How would I 
know that the army officers, other officials, editors, judges, and 
other prominent and respected men in the West, were "Arizona 
liars." Our parents and books did not teach it ; our lecturers 
and preachers did not preach it, and the papers would 
deny it. It seems there should be somebody, to write plain, 
practical and truthful accounts of places, men and things, even 
if they are ridiculed and stabbed and nobody care. 
" Truth ever lovely since the world began, 
The foe of tyrants and the friend of man." 

I noticed much good country between San Bernardino and 
Los Angeles — sixty miles — but little of it was then in cultiva- 
tion. Much of this land could then be bought for ten, fifteen or 
twenty dollars per acre, now it is from one to two hundred dollars 
an acre. The soil is mostly a bed of sand, but with water it can 
be made to blossom as a Moslem paradise. There are some 
spots, however, where corn and other grain and fruits are grown 
in great abundance without irrigation. A few miles East of 
Los Angeles I remember riding over a level sage-brush and 
cactus stretch of several miles in extent, and also over the roll- 
ing hills between town and the sea, which were thickly covered 
with a kind of wild rank clover ' up to my knees,' which, how- 
ever, would be dried up in Ajjril or May. 

The streets of Los Angeles (Lost Angels) follow the wind- 
ings of old stock trails, but there were some fine brick buildings 
and residences with tropical trees and gardens, that are lovely, 
indeed. 

Los Angeles was an old Mexican town of six or seven 
thousand inhabitants. I think a majority in the county was 
then (1867) Mexicans, Indians, Chinamen, etc., and that the 
sheriff was a Mexican. Tlie moneyed men were Jews and 
secret-ring army contractors, who were making big fortunes 




M 



70 California. 



out of the people in tlieir contracts for cavalry horses and all 
kinds of supplies, and the freighting of it into Arizona and else- 
where (the government spent about 4,000,000 dollars in this 
•way, at this point, each year) ; and they acquired large bodies 
of land and other valuable properties accordingly. 

Common labor was twenty-five dollars a month. At some 
out-of-the-way places and at the saw-mills near San Bernardino 
labor was from forty to fifty dollars a month, and the favored 
contractors would sometimes allow outside freighters to make 
a few dollars by sub-contract and doing the work. 

The Mexican population were mostly engaged in cattle, 
horses and sheep. 

Mustangs — the common horses of the country — were sold 
by the band for about seven dollars a head. Large droves were 
being driven to the territories and the states ; were worked in- 
to the government service at round prices, and stage companies 
all over the coast were using them largely. 

In exceptional dry seasons the poorest of the horses have 
been driven over bluffs into the sea by the thousand, to save 
the feed for other stock. At such times, where the ranges are 
over-stocked, cattle, horses and sheep die by the many thou- 
sand in summer ; the same as they more frequently do in 
winter on the ranges of the north-west. 

" Los Angeles, January 11th, 1884. 
Southern Cahfornia, owing to its cUmatic position, being 
midway between the temperate and tropical, is known as Semi- 
Tropic Cahfornia. It has about 280 miles of sea coast, with an 
average of 40 miles in width. This city is the commercial center 
of Southern California There are three things that soon at- 
tract the attention of new comers. They are, the mild, salubrious 
climate, the wonderful productions of the soil and the beauty of 
the scenery. In speaking of the first, we notice from the signal 
service record that the average temperature of winter for six 
years was 52 degrees; for summer 67 degrees. The average 
difference between winter and summer is but 15 degrees. The 
temperature seldom gets to the freezing point in winter, or to 100 
in summer. The cool sea breeze in summer gives an eveness to 
the temperature. There is really neither winter nor summer here 
but year in and year out is one continual season, similar to the 







P>3 

o 



c 



o 






72 California. 



Indian summer of the Eastern States. Flowers bloom in pro- 
fusion all the year; and, as an evidence that but little cold 
weather is experienced, we see sub-tropical plants growing out 
doors in the yards and hedges ; geraniums and French roses bud 
and bloom all through the year. Tomatoes bear all the year and 
for two or three years on the same vines. Castor beans continue 
to grow and bloom from year to year, until the stocks get to be 
as much as six inches in diameter. Sorghum continues to grow 
from the same stock for years. Ripe strawberrys are gathered 
every month in the year. All kiuds of garden vegetables grow all 
the year. "Spring chickens" are a misnomer here, for they are 
raised all the year round. 

The lawns, fields and bluffs are greenest in the wintermonths, 
and more hay is fed in the summer, when the earth is dry and 

parched, than in the winter The larger tracts of land are 

being subdivided into five, ten and twenty acre lots, and sold to 
settlers for fruit raising purposes. In this way the country is 
settling lip very thickly. The lands within five miles of the city 
seU, unimproved, for ] 00 to 300 dollars per acre ; when improved 
and set in trees or vines, and having had five or six years' cultiva- 
tion, with good dwelling and nice surroundings, they will seU at 

from 800 to 1000 dollars per acre Evergreen trees grow here 

all the year. The range of rugged mountains to the north or 
northeast, with their peaks covered with snow, and the blue ocean 
and magnificent sunsets to the south and southwest, is a fitting 
margin to the intervening picture. Upon a high eminence in the 
city we get a view of the surrounding country. A circle of three 
miles in each direction from the court house wiU almost take in 
the city limits, — not all built up yet, but ■\^dthin that radius are 
25,000 inhabitants. The sight is a lovely one. Many fine, palatial 
residences, with surroundings lovely as an idea, and thousands of 
acres stretching far away, thickly studded mth orange, lemon, 
lime, olive, palm, cedar and cypress trees, with numerous semi- 
tropical plants, flowers and vines, make the scene one of rare 

beauty Large orchards of the English walnut, almond and 

other nut-bearing trees are quite common. A part of the city is 
built upon the bluffs, from whence a grand view of the surround- 
ing country can be had. The transfers of real estate within the 
city and county for the last two years foot up about 20,000,000 
doUars. 

J. S. F." 



74 Cmjfornia. 



There are now many smaller towns, but similar to Los 
Angeles, throughout this section. Wells are bored and dug, 
and wind mills largely used in irrigating the land. And all the 
running water is appropriated for the same purpose. 

Notwithstanding the apparent and real natural advantages 
of this section of country, the people, as a rule, were not pros- 
perous and contented. Secret gangs of lawyers in conjunction 
with brethren in office in the State and at Washington, had con- 
spired to cloud, mix, disturb and shatter the regular and legal 
titles to the greater part of the lands in the State; and to then, 
with the courts (composed of themselves), wring tribute on tri- 
bute from every man, woman and child who would own and till 
the soil. 

" Yes," some said to me, " one can buy land here, but he 
never knows when he is done buying it, or when the title is 
settled for certain ; that is all with the lawyers and courts, and 
is never really settled." " Doubt, insecurit}', retarded progress, 
litigation without end, hatred, destruction of property, expendi- 
ture of money, blood-shed, all these have resulted." 

If ever is truly written a complete history of but the land 
troubles in California alone, it Avill be wondered that 
lawyers are not outlawed and destroj'ed — not as men but as 
snakes, wolves and pests to society. 

" The man of law 

Cunningly could he quibble out a flaw, 
And scratch men's scabs to ulcers." 



Its f«OM les t»ocic5.'ou''0ro i"« 



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MISSION SAN JUA« C-lPiSTRAUS. 10 Hilts SOUIK.WOEO 



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,7T6. SUN lOUlSREY MISSION HO MUtS SOW I H. f OUKOtO ITJJ- 



Tropical Pl^^ts and Historical Buildings. 



(75) 



CHAPTER V. 

Xteaye Los Angeles for a new mining camp in Nevada. — The stock of a 
train captured by Indians. — "Death Valley." — Eighty-seven families, 
stock, etc., perish. — The surrounding region and its products. — How- 
teamsters are revenged. — Compi'ehensive description of the mining 
camp.^ — " Hiirrah ! hurrah! we have striack it, hurrah!!" — A big 
Indian. — How Mining Co. officials steal. — Indian and white men 
hung. — The mode of government and trial. — Wages, living, business, 
etc. — The geological formation of mineral lodes, veins, fissures, etc., 
and placer mines. — Prospecting for and locating claims. — The right 
time to sell, etc. — Why mines are guarded with rifles. — How stock 
companies operate. — Why newspaper accounts of mines are not re- 
liable. — The real prices paid for mines. — How stock, etc., is made to 
sell. — One and a half year's experience. 

A.T Los Angeles I formed the acquaintance of an agent of a 
mining company ; lie was forwarding by freight wagons a 
quartz-mill and supplies to their "rich and extensive mines" 
at Pah Ranagat in south-eastern Nevada. This was a new and 
glowing mining district then — at a distance, and he easily in- 
duced me to go to the mines with the train having the 
machinery. I was to run the engine of the mill at eight dollars 
a day. 

Mr. Agent remained behind a few days to start and ac- 
company an outfit of four wagons, four men, and thirty-five or 
forty mules and horses, with mining supplies. When on their 
journey, having camped for the night at an alkali spring on the 
desert, about 250 miles out from Los Angeles, two of the men 
being out with the stock, some Indians swooped in on them 
and run them off, to eat them ; except two that struck for 
camp (as is quite usual), and one that was tied to a wagon. 

Then three of the party stayed with the wagons, while the 
other two returned and procured other animals. 

'* Yet happier those we name (nor name we wi'ong), 
"Who the rough seas of stormy life along 
Have sailed contented ; by experience taught 
Those ills to suffer, which their errors (or theu* fate) 

had brought. 
With placid hopes each torturing pang beguile, 
And welcome every sorrow with a smile.'' 

(76) 



Mining Camps. 77 



We travelled a different road part of the Avay to San Ber- 
nardino, then took the same I have described, for about 250 
miles, when we turned north for about 200 miles (waj^on wheel 
measurement), to the mining camp of "great possibilities." 

After leaving the Mormon road, we found water at from 
twenty-five to forty-five miles travel — one of the stretches being 
thirty-five miles. Passed along the border of Death Valley, 
said to be below the sea level. 

"The Valley of Death. — A spot almost as terrible as the 
prophet's ' valley of dry bones/ lies just north of the old Mormon 
road to California - a region thirty miles long by thirty broad, 
and surrounded, except at two points, by inaccessible mountains. 
It is totally devoid of water and vegetation, and the shadow of a 
bird or wild beast never darkens its white, glaring sands. The 
Kansas Pacific raih-oad engineers discovered [?] it, and some 
papers, which show the fate of the "lost Montgomery train,'' 
which came south from Salt Lake in 1850, guided by a Mormon. 
When near Death Valley, some came to the conclusion that the 
Mormon knew nothing of the country, so they appointed one of 
their number a leader, and broke off from their party. The leader 
turned due west, and so, with the people and wagons and the 
flocks, he travelled three days and then descended into the broad 
valley, whose treacherous mirage promised water. They reached 
the center, but only the white sands, bounded by scorching peaks, 
met theii" gaze. And around the valley they wandered, and one 
by one the men died. And the panting flocks stretched them- 
selves in death under the hot sun. The children, crying for 
water, died at their mothers' breasts, and, with swollen tongues 
and burning vitals, the mothers followed. Wagon after wagon 
was abandoned, and strong men tottered and raved and died. 
After a week's wandering, a dozen survivors found some water in 
the hollow of a mountain. It lasted but a short time, when aU 
perished but two, who escaped out of the valley and followed the 
trail of theu' former companions. Eighty-seven families, wdth 
hundreds of animals, perished here; and now, after twenty-two 
years, the wagons stand still, complete, the iron- works and tu-es 
are bright, and the shrivelled skeletons lie side by side.'' 

This region produces many varieties of cactus ; some being 
a foot in diameter and about twenty feet high, and in spots 
like a thick forest. The dead trunks made good camp fires. 



78 California to Nevada. 



There is alkali and soda in extensive banks and quite pure, 
so tliat, when it rains, the water running from it looks like 
milk. There is also petrified wood, chalk hills, vulcano craters 
and lava flows, and dry lakes, five to ten miles in extent, smooth 
and hard as a floor. 

Lizards, centipedes and Indians bask in the sunshine, each 
apparently contented with his lot, and sometimes there are vast 
swarms of grasshoppers, but they fly away. 

It was said, that the freighter who brought the mill, had 
the faculty of tricking his men out of their wages, so that on 
reaching Salt Lake they stole the burrs from his wagons in 
revenge. 

I found a mining district, and a county (Lincoln) had been 
organized, embracing the mountain spur, containng the mineral 
bearing quartz rock, — the highest peak (which was composed 
of barren quartz) being some 9000 feet above the sea— a small 
watered valley, fit for farming and stock raising, ten or twelve 
miles away, having large flowing hot sulphur springs, and 
enough of the adjacent country for an extensive grasshopper 
and lizard range, and to show big on a map. 

There were five little camps ; three being in the mountain, 
and two in the valley, — one of which was the county seat 
and the other had wanted to be. They each ha^dng water — 
both hot and cold. One of the three camps in the mountain 
was supplied with water from a spring, three or four miles 
away, at ten cents a gallon ; each of the other two had small 
springs. 

There was some timber (pine) on the mountain, and lum- 
ber was whip-sawed for $150 a thousand feet, also a good deal 
of scrub-nut-pine for fuel and producing food for the Indians. 

The district contained a migratory, ever changing popu- 
lation of about 250 men, from every quarter and station ; less 
than a dozen women and children, and the usual complement 
of Indians. 

These Indians are simple as children, and degraded in 
their habits, but as proud, patriotic and jealous of their posses- 
sions and fame, as a subject of the white Mormon secret state. 
Their chief had recently met the Governor of the State 
(Nevada), and to impress him with their equal importance. 




(79 



80 California to Nevada. 



addressed him thus: — "Tou big chief: il/e big chief too; 
You own Virginia City, Austin, Carson, etc., etc. : 3Ie own all 
of this, that, and the other mountain, and all of these valleys, 
waters, etc., etc. ; You heap big son of a b — h : 3Ie all the same." 

There were now three quartz mills in the district, with 
more to follow, and most everybody had "feet" in mining 
claims. One had sold for $50,000, and they were singing, 
" hurrah ! hurrah ! ! we have struck it, hurrah ! ! ! the Gentiles 
have struck it in southern Utah." It was at first thought to 
be in Utah. 

Miners' wages were six dollars a day, mechanics' eight 
dollars, and boss mill builders' twenty dollars. But there was 
not much employment to be had ; there being always an ov^" 
supply of men, and the pay was mighty uncertain. 

Merchants charged, on an average, about 300 per cent, 
profit on their goods, expecting this to be somewhat reduced 
by bad debts, as credit is seldom refused. 

There was no smaller change than tweniy-five cents, which 
was the price of drinks, etc. Board, fourteen dollars a week, 
though "baching" was the rule at an expense of about one dollar 
a day. Flour, thirteen dollars a hundred pounds. Sugar, 
butter, coffee, at seventy-five cents a pound. Boots, thirteen 
dollars a pair. Grain and potatoes, ten cents a pound. Hay, 
fifty dollars a ton. Wagon spokes and ax handles, one dollar 
to one dollar and a half each. Hard lumber, one dollar and a 
half per square foot. There were similar mining camps, 150 
miles and more away ; and Mormon settlements as near as 175 
miles, which sent in their produce. The Mormons like to have 
mining camps spring up around them, for the market they 
afford them. They thus got six dollars a bushel for all their 
surplus wheat for several years, other produce in pro- 
portion. The mines, and the California and Oregon bound 
emigration trains, and United States troops constituted their 
markets. 

The Mormons never mine themselves, except for wages. 
The counsel of the order being against investing any money in 
mines ; knowing, that as a business it does not begin to pay, 
except with other people's money. 

There being no home influences or comforts in mining 



Mining Cajits. 81 



camps, the saloons are the universal place of resort, for com- 
pany, business and pleasure. Stores and saloons are frequently 
connected. And all men are expected, as good citizens, to con- 
tribute towards making things lively and times good for those 
who do not work, hj spending their money for whiskey, in 
gambling, and at the stores. Those Avho would do so freely, 
and in advance, stood the first show for employment, — as good 
as those who were secret ring brethren. An employer could 
thus throw money into the pockets of brethren behind the 
counters and tables. Men seeking employment, on going to 
such places, should be broke and forthwith run saloon and 
board bills, and let them hustle up jobs for them. 

Mining superintendents get a salary of about $5000 a year, 
and what they can safely steal ; which is in proportion to the 
amount of business done and money handled. They are usually 
ring brethren of the chief men of the company, with no business 
ability or character necessary for legitimate success ; but they 
must be cunning in their stealing and trustworthy in dividing. 
Expenses incurred are largely increased in the books, this is 
one of their ways. I knew the bookkeeper of a management 
that had him add one hundred per cent, to all expenses, or so 
it would average that. $100,000 expended in a quartz mill, can 
be made to blossom into $376,911.09 in the books to the out- 
side stock holders ; other expenses likewise. 

There were state and county ring machines of government 
here, but they were discarded by the people for the government 
of the plains — carried in every man's pocket, or swung to his 
belt. For example : — an Indian having killed a white man, 
was, with others, captured, tried without lawbooks or lawyers, 
and hung ; the others being acquitted. 

A white man, of considerable eminence in the states, 
murdered another for his money ; he was likewise given a fair, 
open trial and hung. 

An employer undertakes to trick his men out of their 
money; knowing that he has it, one of them presents a pistol at 
his head, with the proposition to pay or die — he pays. 

A boisterous desperado undertakes to " run the town," 
runs against some quiet little man, who kills him in his disgust 
at the cowardice of the famed bullies and toughs of the camp. 
6 



82 Califoexia to Nevada. 



The people were not afraid of, or prejudiced against tlie 
professional gambler and sharp, but they had no use for 
the mysterious midnight trickster and confidence man. 

I have noticed that the more frank, generous and honorable 
of men, who have had experience with the different govern- 
ments, prefer this government " by the people, for the people," 
to that of gangs of lawyers ; because secret gangs do not protect 
what honest industry procures. 

While the selfish, grasping, criminal natures, who would 
get on by secret intrigue and the misery they make, are wed- 
ded to the lawyer gang system. 

" They are never happy, except when they destroy 
The comfort and blessing which others enjoy." 

As to the geological formation of mineral lodes, veins or 
deposits, let the curious, as to this, imagine a mountain in a 
molten state ; then towards and at the surface it has become 
cool and hardened, with a seething, blubbering mass of molten 
quartz, mingled with mineral, shaken, settled or run together, 
still in a state of volcanic action underneath in tho bowels of 
the mountain ; the volcanic action, being now more confined, 
becomes more violent, and the mountain above cracks oi3en, in 
one or more fissures or cracks ; the seething, blubbering mass 
of quartz-rock and mineral boils and spurts up into the fissures 
or cracks, till their sides (" wall rock ") are smooth as glass ; it 
finally cools and hardens there into solid mineral-bearing 
quartz-rock. If it is pressed, spurted, or flows out at the sur- 
face of the cracks, then out-cro23pings are formed, and bowlders 
and bodies of this mineral-mixed lava are mingled with the 
surrounding surface of the mountain ; perhaps, in time, this is 
partly or completely covered wath other rock, soil and vegeta- 
tion. Usually it appears that nearly, or all of the mineral-bear- 
ing rock had thus flowed out and scattered about, and the 
fissures or cracks had then settled back or closed from beneath, 
or else filled up with ordinary rock or lava, which may crop 
out and be scattered about also. Or the fissures, cracks, may 
be filled with quartz, barren of mineral ; nearly so, or except in 
spots (called " bonanzas " or " pockets "), or except in perpen- 
dicular streaks (called "chimneys"). There are plenty of ledges, 
fissures, etc., in quartz and mining districts that are not loded 



Mining Cajvips. 83 



with metal. But gold and silver is usually formed or mixed 
with the character of rock, called quartz. 

These cracks, fissures or lodes may be very deep, farther 
down thau has ever been reached by man, (about 4000 feet). 
When deep, they are called true fissure veins, and trend in 
direction with the range of mountain - usually northerly and 
southerly. But they usually contract with depth, " pinch " or 
"peter out " at a short distance below the surface ; this is most 
always the case, if rich in the precious metals, otherwise they 
would not be precious. If there is no out-cropping to a ledge 
or lode, and it is covered with the country or common rock, or 
with ground, it is called a " blind ledge " or lode. Imagine 
again, that the mountain, on cooling, had many surface cracks 
or seams (which, when leading to or springing from a main or 
larger one, are called " spurs ") and also cavities, caves and 
pockets, and that a portion of these are filled with the flowing 
and rolling quartz, more or less mixed with mineral. 

In lead districts, molten lead and rock seems to have flow- 
ed for many miles, filling up the holes and low places in the 
way. Afterwards, other flows of lava have more or less covered 
these deposits aud formed stratas of rock over them. After- 
wards, earth-quakes and the wear of water may have changed 
the lay of the land. 

In a mineral district, the ledges or veins of quartz-rock — 
either barren or containing valuable mineral, such as gold, 
silver, copper, lead, etc.,— also all of the bowlders, scattered 
bodies, filled cracks, holes, deposits, etc., showing signs of 
mineral, are, when discovered, each located as a mining claim 
aud recorded. A mining claim may (in late years) embrace as 
much as twenty acres of ground. 

The richest rock is, as a rule, found at or near the surface 
of the ledge ; though richer pockets may be found deeper down. 
The rich rock of the "bonanzas " struck deep in the great corn- 
stock, was very low grade, compared with that found at the 
surface of the ledge. 

When one has a quartz claim and can find a man with 
money, who thinks the rock will improve, or that the ledge will 
widen out as depth is attained, sell it to him, quick. 

However, it the rock will pay to work, he and his partner 



84 California to Nevada. 



can blast it out and sell it on the dump ; have it worked bj 
some one of the mills that are alread}^, or will be, built, if there 
is a prospect of much pay rock anywhere around. Or, if it is 
rock that is not difficult to work, they can put up an erasta, 
hitch their horses to it, and work a ton or two of rock a day 
themselves. But a claim that has really good prospects in 
sight, can be sold, for more than it is worth to work, to some 
gang of mining sharps who will work it oflf for a yet larger 
sum, with a " half interest " or stock game, to " raise money to 
develop or work it," etc. A good mine, or a good prospect 
even, does not need to be advertised or puffed in newspapers to 
find a customer. It tvould he foolish to 2)ut up ten dollars on any- 
thing that might he written in a neiospaper about a mine. If it is a 
big bargain, do not think that the owner will hunt up strangers 
to favor with it, or permit them to enjoy it at all. 

If a mine is really rich and is to be honestly worked, it is 
to the interest of the owners, in various ways, to keep its value 
hid as much as possible, and they never fail to do so. 

Persons that have never owned enticing property, have no 
idea of the midnight conspiracies, that set to work to rob 
the owner of such properties. The gang conspires to have the 
courts in the hands of secret brethren, with whom they can 
secretly and safely deal, and then, by hook or crook, some 
little technical error (?), done for the purpose to get the pro- 
perty in the hands of the courts. Or the gang may " jump " it, 
when, if they are not killed, the court comes to their assistance, 
by taking and keeping the case in court until the mine is work- 
ed out— twenty or thirty years, if necessary. For example, a 
clerical error (?) of, I believe, but a single word, done in the 
patent to McGarahan, w^as excuse enough for the courts to take 
his mine, give it to some brethren, and keep it in court as long 
as the owner lived — about thirtj^-five years. Besides, taking all 
the means he could raise meanwhile. So that it is necessary 
to defend such property with rifles and shotguns, which is 
often expensive. And there are other reasons, as can be 
imagined, why rich strikes are concealed and not advertised. 

In prospecting a new locality for quartz mines, one rides 
through the gulches and ravines, looks for pieces of quartz or 
"float'" rock, which ma}' have been washed by the elements 



Mining Cajips. 85 



from ledges or other bodies of it above. If any promising 
pieces of rock are found, the hills and mountains above where 
it was found are carefully looked over, to find where or what 
the " float " was detached from. The distance it has travelled is 
judged by the amount it is worn. 

Frequently the out-croppings, bowlders and other surface 
quartz, as heretofore described, have decomposed and been 
washed, with their gold, down into the gulches and streams, with 
gravel, and other dirt washed over it-thits forming tJie Placer mhies. 

There were, perhaps, one thousand mining claims located 
and recorded in the Pah-Eanagat district. I had first seen speci- 
mens from some of them at Salt Lake ; they were highly 
colored, and enticing to look at. This is one way of advertising 
a mining camp and particular mines : I mean, to exhibit rich 
pieces of ore. 

But the ore in this district was base ; that is, it contained 
besides silver, sulphur, antimony, copper, iron, lead, etc.; it 
being therefore refractory and costly to mill, separate and 
work. It was also very hard to drill and blast. Then it was 
a low grade ore, say ten dollars to thirty dollars in silver to the 
ton of rock. Pieces could be selected that would assay very 
high, while much of it was quite barren. 

There is generally one principal or main ledge in a mining 
district, and one only ; the rest being smaller cracks, spurs, 
bowlders and other little bunches of quartz. The principal 
ledge in this district cropped out boldly, ten or fifteen feet 
high in places, was two to ten feet thick, and was traced more 
than half a mile in length, certainly a fine prospect for a true 
fissure vein ; but it did not prove to be so. The country or 
common rock was limestone, in which formation I believe there 
is hardly, if ever, any true fissure veins. Granite is the most 
favorable formation, it being composed, in part, of quartz. 
Still this ledge had depth enough to produce a great deal of 
ore, and so had various others. But the distance to water, to 
which the ore and wood had to be hauled, the high price of 
freight and labor, and the incompetent and swindling manage- 
ment would not allow such rock to be worked at a profit. 

The discoverer of the main ledge secured the greater part 
of it, and sold it to a stock company for $50,000, which did 



86 Califoenia to Nevada. 

the usual thing in expending perhaps $1,000 a day, for two 
years, in salaries, etc., building mills and furnaces, blasting 
tunnels and shafts, producing a few hundred dollars in bullion 
and selling stock. Suppose the management sold three and a 
half tons of stock to outsiders for $1,500,000, and their actual 
expenditure to have been $500,000, then they made $1,000,000 
in two years. Moreover, had they developed a valuable mine, 
or struck it rich, they would have shut down just the same so 
as to buy the three and a half tons of stock back for about the cost 
of the paper and printing, and would not allow the mine to pay 
until this was accomplished. This done, the "bonanza" would 
be uncovered, bullion produced, and so magnified and adver- 
tised as to re-sell the stock for ten times the real value of the 
bonanza. Think not, that they would sell the stock or mine or 
any portion of it at a good bargain to strangers ! Much less 
that they would spend money like water in advertising and 
hunting up strangers to favor thus. 

A smaller claim (400 feet long), supjDosed to be of the same 
vein, was discovered to a man b}^ an Indian for about fifty dol- 
lars, who sold it for one hundred and fifty dollars, which then 
went into a stock or share company. Don't know, how many "ten 
thousand" dollars were written in the deed, nor does a seller 
care. Another claim, located as an extension to this, was sold 
by an intelligent and practical miner for a saddle horse ; which 
claim also went into an eastern stock or share company, with 
its big-salaried officers — ignorant as Indians as to legitimate 
business and management. They each bought mills, etc., the 
first thing, as though their rock would pay to work and their 
saddle horse claims had been develojjed into true fissure veins. 
One of them produced three or four hundred dollars in bullion. 

How much these masons made by selling stock, shares, 
"half, quarter or tenth interest," depended on how many idiots 
of outsiders they found willing to trust their money to secret 
gentry of a charitable (?) order, thus leaping into the dark, — 
and how well they were fixed with money. 

It was the agent of one of these latter companies that I 
met at Los Angeles, and one or the other of them I worked 
for the greater part of my stay of about a year and a half in 
the district. 



Mining Camps. 87 



I and another man had a contract to furnish the greater 
part of the timber and joice for the building of their quartz- 
mills and furnaces. It had to be sawed or squared with whip- 
saws. The price was one hundred dollars per 1000 feet in the 
woods. We could saw about 300 feet a day. Gave a man with 
three yoke of oxen thirty dollars a day to snake the logs 
together. 

Then I worked in the mines at sis dollars a day, and for 
two or three mouths was night watchman at the mill, etc., at 
seven dollars a night. 

The mills, etc., being completed, spoiled the sale of stock, 
as the rock would not pay to work, and the companies, being 
in debt for labor and supplies, let the property go, and the 
agents skipj^ed out. They owed me about one thousand 
dollars, for which I had their notes, which I placed in the 
hands of an ex-Chief Justice of Utah for collection from the 
company in NeM' York. I also corresponded with its president 
and agent; got some encouragement for several years, but never 
got any money. 

There were other companies besides those noted, that 
operated, more or less, on other ledges in this district ; but 
what I have given is a fair illustration of the others and of 
quartz mining generally in the many other quartz districts. 

A few other persons besides th'ose alluded to, made 
some money by selling their claims, and some others got away 
with a few hundred dollars, made by working for wages or on 
contracts. But the most of the money, made by selling claims, 
working for wages, or otherwise, that was not spend for whis- 
ke}', etc., was squandered in prospecting, in one way or another, 
as I did. 

There were prospecting parties out for hundreds of miles 
in all directions all the time, in some of which I was always in- 
terested. One of these went into Death Valley and beyond, 
thinking that it ought to contain lots of mineral, if it was "very 
good" for anything, as it lacked in everything else but sun- 
shine and sand. They found but slight prospects and returned, 
riding and packing the shadows of death. If artesian water 
can be got, and it is not salt, this valley can be made very 
productive, there being plenty of sand and climate. 



88 California to Nev.^da. 



The Pali-Kanagat mining camps were entirely deserted 
(the population going to White Pine), and the county organiza- 
tion was abandoned, when the taxable properties would no 
longer sell for the salaries. It was never of any use to the 
people. The little watered valley now supports a small 
Mormon settlement. 

Yet there is much silver-bearing quartz in the mountain, 
which, with improved facilities in working the ore and in trans- 
portation, with honest and intelligent management, will pay to 
work, as a legitimate business, and pay welk 

This is a fair sample and example of many other districts 
with which I became acquainted ; so to describe them would 
be but to substantially repeat, what I have written as to this 
one. But as White Pine was " heap big " c-h-i-e-f, as to 
fame, excitement, population, richness of its ore, big swindles, 
fond hopes and regret, and as I was there from its rise till it 
tumbled down, I will give my information and experience briefly, 
concerning the same. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Tlie mines, conihmed. — Exciting reports from a distant mountain. — Outfit 
one of a party to go. — What he wrote me. — "Ho ! for "^Tiite Pine ! " — 
The richest silver mine ever discovered. — The pui'e stuff. — I go, too. 
— Visit another cami^ on the way. — My horse and saddle "borrowed." 
— A big camp ablaze with excitement. — Belief that the stuff could be 
found anyAvhere by digging. — The many thousand "mines," — "Bril- 
liant schemes." — Blubbering investors from the states. — Life: gamb- 
ling, drinking, business and damnation. — Making big sales, etc. ; the 
outcome.— Another year and a half of lively practical experience in 
the mines. — The many smaller camps in the surrounding region. — 
Virginia City and Gold Hill. — The great Comstock lode. — The 
Bonanza and other great stock gambling mines that we read of. 

W HEN stories, tliat the since famous Eberhardt mine (then, 
and yet declared, and perhaps truly, to be, and to have been 
the richest in silver ever discovered in the world) had been 
struck at White Pine, I outfitted one of a party to go and 
prospect the mountain in its vicinity. 

It succeeded in locating a claim as near as one hundred 
feet of the Eberhardt itself, besides others, as enticing ; and 
with glowing prospects or faith, forthwith blasted a hole forty 
feet deep into the former. Somehow it was believed, that the 
stuff could be struck, as lead is often found, with little or no 
surface indications, most anywhere in that vicinity. 

My partner embraced an opportunity to send me a letter ; 
he wrote, "We have one first-rate lead and continue to work 
on our shaft. Shall know this week whether we are in or out 
of luck. They are striking it all around us. If we do raise the 
color it will be rich, sieve." 

On my way to White Pine — 150 or 200 miles distant — I 
stopped a few days in "Grant district," with a prospecting 
party, with whom I was likewise interested. They had formed 
this district. Had discovered and were prospecting some 
quartz ledges, and the prospects and outlook were such, as to 
induce parties owning a ten-stamp quartz mill to contract to 
move it there, set it up, and give and take a half interest in 
each. The mill was then on the way, one of our party having 
gone out on the trackless desert to meet the train and pilot 

(89) 



90 . The Mines of Nevada. 



them into the mines. The rock, however, was refractory to 
work and not rich enough to pay at that time — or so it was 
made to appear. But some years afterwards I read that these 
mines were being worked. I was riding a horse and saddle, 
for which I had paid $150, (having other animals with pros- 
pecting parties) and on approaching White Pine left them in 
the care of an old friendly acquaintance, who was then keeping 
a horse ranch, — that is, herding horses for the miners and others 
who were stopping up in the mountains, where there was no 
grass or water — where the winds beat against the bleak and 
barren cliffs, and the birds never sing. I told him, as a friend, 
to use my outfit as his own, on any needful occasion. He after- 
wards did so ; having sold out, he rode it out of the country — not 
even calling around or sending word to thank me, or say 
good-bye. 

Found White Pine ablaze with excitement. The hills and 
mountains (^9000 feet high), quite thronged with men, eagerly 
and confidently at work with pick and drill, hunting for the 
precious ore. 

The Eberhardt mine was at its best, turning out, with 
common rock, nearly pure virgin and horn silver by the ton. 
Bowlders of which one could bore an auger through. A guard 
of several men, armed with rifles, guarded the mine at ten 
dollars a night each, to keep it out of the courts. 

A Governor of Colorado was killed by mistake, by his own 
men, who were thus guarding a mine of his. And Uncle Sam 
likewise guards his silver at the treasury, and with grape and 
canister, wherein he decides not to be robbed — having no con- 
fidence in his own courts. I note these only as prominent 
examples of a common custom and necessitv, to stand ready 
to kill men in defence of mere property. Why should not 
other classes of robbers, those who pillage b}' secret intrigue 
and treason, be^likewise killed in the act ? 

Deposits or bodies of ore, more or less rich in silver, were 
found in various places, some of which lay flat like coal. 
This, with the magnified flaming stories and rich strikes, that 
were continuall}* flying in the air, increased the excitement to 
such a pitch, and as the Eberhardt itself was but an irregular 
body of ore at or near the surface, that it was the general im- 



Thrilling Experience in the Mixes. 91 

pression that this district was nature's freak, so that silver 
could be found for a mile or two of the Eberhardt, as readily 
as lead is found in galena districts; and that it was "rich, sure." 

Moreover, there were many small lead deposits in the 
"base mettle range," in the district close by, which always 
carried silver. There were also many well defined ledges of 
quartz (but which were prospected in vain). So tunnels and 
square holes were being blasted by the hundred. In many 
cases without any surface indications whatever, or other pros- 
pects, except that had by some other claim in the vicinity. 

Shafts were so thick on "Chloride Flat," and in the vicinity 
of the Eberhardt, that the flying rock, from the numerous 
blasts in the lime-stone, made it dangerous to be about them ; 
this with labor at five dollars coin a day, or by contract at 
twenty dollars per foot. 

Thousands of such claims were located by private parties 
and companies such as ours, who would largely bond and sell 
to speculating mining sharps, who are expert business men. 
As "great successful lawyers" win with their secret power in 
packing juries and buying judges, so the expert business 
miner effects his sales by selling stock and buying other experts 
and agents. They making the most of the far reaching, wide 
spread excitement ; newspaper articles, (often in editorials, as 
though the editor was a practical man, had made a personal 
examination, had written the thing himself and was telling the 
truth) and in various devices of the profession, often succeeded 
in effecting fabulous sales to the good people in the states and 
in Europe. 

As it is easier to get a big swindle through Congress or a 
legislature than a little one, so it is easier to sell a worthless 
mine for a big sum, than a small sum, as enough is thus afford- 
ed to buy the thing through, and leave a surplus. 

Such were the " mines," in which so many, at a distance, 
hopefully invested (and so did we who were there). Sometimes 
mining companies, forming at a distance, would not bother 
about the little matter of any claim at all, except in the mind, 
as not needing them in their business ; to the great surprise of 
au occasional troublesome investor, who happened to come out 
to visit the famed (at a distance) " silver king," etc., the idol of 



92 The Mines of Nevada. 

his heart and purse, and could not find or even hear of it in the 
district. 

These men made a great deal of trouble now, since they 
could travel mostly by rail ; when in former times they were 
just as useful in "developing the country " and were not in the 
way. I was told of such imaginary claims, and others of mere 
bowlders or holes in the limestone, that were stocked for from 
$500,000 to $2,500,000, and that by working famed and 
titled gentlemen's names as directors, etc., and have them and 
editors puff up the scheme, the stock would sell at a " discount " 
so as to leave a large surplus. 

If the expert business men in Nevada and their brethren 
in the big cities had had their way, these meddlesome, wailing 
lambs would have been snatched up and buried in prison, a 
censorship placed over their correspondence, and the railroad 
ripped up. 

But they were somewhat off-set and put down by other 
visitors, such as a famous "select party of Chicago merchants." 
They travelled in a special train and stage coaches, were met 
with a brazen band ; made enticing, flaming reports as to the 
general richness of the mines, predicted that " the world would 
be amazed at the wonderful and immense streams of silver that 
would flow from White Pine to enrich the people of the earth," 
and, no doubt, made money in the business. 

Of course, the entire press in the U. S. would gladly publish, 
unquestioned, the reports from such " good authority " and 
attend them with flattering editorials ; when they would spurn 
to notice, except to kick and condemn, the stories of the bank- 
rupt, "blubbering, revengeful investors, who would make 
trouble and injure gentlemen in their business." Yet some- 
how they would get in their work, so that foreign capital had 
to be invited, and even it got too shy and expensive to leave 
any profit. 

Besides quartz-mills, furnaces, etc., that were building, 
there was Shermantown, Treasure City and Hamilton, populous 
mining towns, that were springing up rapidly, with lumber $400 
or $500 per 1000 feet, etc., carpenter wages eight dollars a day, 
(board fourteen dollars a week), and lots selling for four, five 
and six thousand dollars, and often with titles badly clouded. 



Thrilling Experience in the Mines. 93 

Men were pouring iu from every camp, section, state and clime. 
Every store included a bar, to graciously assist men in their 
joy at selling a claim or town lot, and in their many disappoint- 
ments and sorrows— for two bits (twenty-five cents) a drink. 
Sjjacious gambling houses, etc., with all sorts of games and en- 
ticing coin stacked high on the tables, to accommodate the lucky 
and the luckless in breaking them both. Eich strikes and big 
sales were daily reported, most everybody was in high spirits 
and expectations, many being wild and some crazed with the 
flaming excitement with which the very air seemed charged. 

Many who had sold claims were wildly spending the money, 
always expecting to sell others for a stake to go away with and 
keep. One who was a card-sharp, gambled off $30,000 in a 
little while. 

The mine recorder and assistants were kept busy filing the 
15,000 or more claims that were recorded, and business generally 
went on the jump. Yet hundreds were hunting for employment 
or to borrow a few dollars. Two or three daily and weekly 
papers were soon being published. All the water at Treasure 
City and the mines cost ten cents a gallon, while works were 
being constructed to bring it up from a small stream three 
miles away, at a cost of $250,000, only to be abandoned or torn 
up soon after its completion. 

In about a year and a half all this faith, bustle, business 
and surging wave of eager men had changed to disappointment, 
disgust and desertion. The prevailing question was now, how 
to get out of the country and where to go to, as this state was 
now blistered by the light of the outside world, and a railroad 
was running as near as 120 miles, and wires were stretched into 
the camp. 

Not a single extensive paying mine or fissure vein of ore 
had been discovered, and but a few small paying deposits, not 
any containing a fortune, except the cause of all the flattering 
tales, rush and conflict of men, — the Eberhardt. And it was 
now virtually worked out, sold, and incorporated to sell again 
and again to Englishmen, by its fame. 

Shermantown, from a population of 4000, Treasure City of 
7000, besides the many hundreds of outside cabins and small 



94 The Mixes of Nevada. 



camps for many miles around, were now, in a few months, al- 
most entirely deserted. But Hamilton with its 5000 inhabitants, 
being the couuty seat and capital of a region extensive enough 
for a state, held on to a few hundred. This district and the sur- 
rounding regions are strangely marked with numerous deserted 
quartz mills, roasting and smelting furnaces, shafts, tunnels 
and habitations, — lasting monuments of ill-spent time and 
wealth. 

Still there is a great deal of mineral-bearing rock in the 
mountains of Nevada, that will be worked in the future. 

Having acquired interests in di£ferent claims at White Pine, 
some of which appeared quite promising, which were bonded 
to sell for various large sums (the poorest one— near the Eber- 
hardt — for enough to make us each a fortune) and being still 
at work in prospecting others, I felt, like so many others, 
greatly encouraged as to the outcome. 

Once a telegram came from San Francisco that a big sale 
had been accomplished, and our money Avould be deposited 
that day. But it transpired that in a succession of agents, ex- 
perts, etc., sent by different members of the company formed 
to buy, there was one, and only one, and the last one to report, 
that was not convinced by those in charge of the business at the 
mine. His unexpected adverse telegram meanwhile, was a fatal 
blister on the mine and sale. 

If he had given them any warning, they could have cut the 
wire and secured the coin. And as the reaction and collapse 
of the camp came almost as sudden as the blaze was kindled, 
none of our big. sales were effected. I therefore shared with 
the thousands of others in the general disappointment. Way 
back in the wild, cannibal infested, fever-stricken jungles of 
South America or Africa, is the best place to locate gold and 
silver mines. 

However, I made some money by small sales, by sinking 
shafts and running tunnels at twenty dollars a foot. In one 
claim we had a body of ore that appeared to be quite extensive, 
it being solid ore fifteen feet deep, as far as we sunk in it. But 
on having a few tons of it milled, it produced but about thirty 
dollars a ton, which would not pay at that time. Some of it 



Thrilling Experience in the Mines. 95 

assayed at the rate of one hundred dollars a ton. As it had not 
the appearance of a regular vein we abandoned* it. Doubtless 
it was afterwards worked out by others. This was the "Union 
Standard," at the base of a high rock bluff, about three-quarters 
of a mile north of the Eberhardt. 

Virginia City and Gold Hill were built up during a similar 
excitement ten years before White Pine. But there proved to 
be there one mammoth, true fissure vein — 400 or 500 feet thick 
and more than two miles long — the Comstock lode. 

In this are the "Bonanza" and other famous stock gambling 
mines of Nevada, some of which are being or have been pros- 
pected to a depth of 3,500 feet, and to drain it to about 1900 
feet down, the Sutro tunnel was run 20,178 feet. 

But even in this great fissure lode — the greatest gold and 
silver vein in the world — there are many mines that have never 
payed to work as a legitimate business. One of these has ex- 
pended millions of dollars in prospecting, Avithout finding any 
pay rock. I believe it has never produced a dollars worth of 
bullion, though "Bullion" is its name. 



"Record of Assessments and Dividends of the Comstock 

Mines. 

Fifty mines have each collected [1881] more than $100,000 
in assessments, and eighteen more together have collected 
$735,000. In this estimate is not included the assessment by 
companies which have been dissolved or incorporated in others. 
These fifty mines have levied $58,723,000 in assessments. 
Of these Yellow Jacket leads off with $4,878,000; Savage 
with $4,809,000 ; Sierra Nevada, $4,200,000 ; Bullion, $3,850,000 ; 
Hale and Norcross, $3,409,000; Belcher, $2,268,000; Ophir, 
$2,988,000; Gould and Curry, $3,2UG,000; Crown Point, 
$2,423,000; and so on through the list, there being seven- 
teen mines w^hicli have gathered in over $1,000,000 in 
assessments. 

Of the seventy-one mines on the Comstock, seventy have 
levied assessments, amounting in all to $59,458,000, and only 



96 The Mines of Nevada. 



fourteen have paid any dividends. These fourteen are as follows, 

with their dividends : 

Con. Virginia, $42,930,000 

California, 30,950,000 

Belcher, 15,307,200 

Crown Point, 11,688,000 

Savage, 4,460,000 

Gould and Curry, 3,825,000 

YeUow Jacket, 2,184,000 

Hale and Norcross, 1,598,000 

Ophir, 1,594,000 

Kentuck, 1,252,000 

Con. Imperial, 1,125,000 

Sierra Nevada, 102,200 

Confidence, 78,000 

Darney, 57,000 

Succor, 22,800 

Total, $117,173,200 

An examination of this list will show, that only six mines have 
paid their stockholders more than Ihey have taken from them. 
These are Belcher, California, ConsoKdated Virginia, Crown Point, 
Gould and Curry, and Kentuck. One who is familiar with the 
Comstock, will see at a glance that all these mines have been 
largely owned and controlled by the Bonanza firm. So, when 
you say Consolidated Virginia, California and Belcher have 
paid $89,277,200 in dividends, you may also add, that three- 
quarters of this amount has gone dh'ectly into the pockets of 
Flood, Mackay and Fair. The outside investors have always come 
in just as the dividends ceased, and have invariably been on hand 
to pay assessments. California never levied an assessment. Con- 
sohdated Virginia only $411,000. The bulk of this stock has 
always been held by the Bonanza firm, and its $74,000,000 
of dividends represent a good part of their colossal wealth, 
gained in the last ten years. 

The army of small speculators have put their money into 
other mines, and have been allowed the privilege of paying for 
working ore, whose chief value lay in the elaborate analysis of 
well-paid experts. 

An illustration of the methods employed on the Stock Ex- 
change is furnished in the recent rise and decline of Alta. It was 



Thrilling Experience in the Mines, 97 

selling at one dollar and sixty cents, and was a comparatively- 
dead stock. Suddenly mysterious rumors spread around, that the 
diamond drillings had shown a rich ore body. Soon these rumors 
were confii-medby the superintendent and others in control, and they 
privately advised their friends to buy up all the Alta they could 
lay hands on. Of course, this reached the street in a few hours. 
Alta bounded up to five dollars, then on to ten, and, within a 
week, twenty dollars, and afterwards to twenty dollars and fifty 
cents. A vast amount of stock was bought. Suddenly it was 
hinted, that a gigantic 'deal' had been made by the management 
who, in turn, tried to make it appear that the superintendent had 
' salted ' the drillings and thus got good indications. Confidence 
was shattered ; there was a wild rout, and the stock fell rapidly 
from twenty dollars to three dollars and fifteen cents. When 
there was talk of an official investigation of the mine, the 
lower levels were conveniently flooded with water. This is but 
an example of many other swindles. 

A short time before a very bad ' deal ' was made in Belcher, 
and it was found necessary to flood the mine, when the outsiders 
had all been fleeced. 

There is a growing sentiment among the people, which 
demands that some check be placed upon the lawless schemes of 
those who, for years, have fleeced the credulous by swindles that 
would make a faro-dealer blush, and have driven thousands to 
suicide and crime. 

*' 1882. — We [committee] consider the management [of 
Bullion] recklessly extravagant and characterized by a total dis- 
regard of the rights of stockholders. With reference to the 
Belcher and Crown Point mines, the Belcher mine has produced 
from May, 1881, to December, 1882, 28,154 tons of ore, the value 
of which we are unable to determine [it being a ring secret]. 
Such e\'idence as we could obtain placing the value at from thirty 
to forty dollars per ton. This ore was sold in the mine for fifty 
cents per ton, and the parties [brethren] buying said ore were 
allowed to use the company's shaft and works to raise the ore to 
the surface. We find, the Crown Point mine produced from 
March, 1881, to December, 1882, 68,457 tons under similar con- 
ditions, and it was also sold for fifty cents per ton [to brethren]. 
These mines are still producing about 5000 tons per month on the 
terms as before stated. These two mines are managed badly and 
with a total disregard of the rights of stockholders. 
7 



98 The Mines of Nevada. 



The proxy system enables people who do not own any stock, 
to control mines and run them in their own interest. 

" ' Tis sad, but His ivell. — 1883. — There is something peculiarly 
sad about the decline of Virginia City. The story of its rise and 
its character in prosperous days, reads like a brilliant flight of 
imagination. No other city in the world was ever like it. Its 
business, its wealth, its prodigality, its wickedness— each, in its 
way, was peculiar. And the desolation which now so contrasts 
with the rush and glitter of the palmy time, is a desolation the like 
of which has never before been seen on the American continent. 
Eight years ago Virginia City and Gold Hill, adjoining each other, 
had 35,000 population. It was the largest community between 
Denver and San Francisco. There were merchants doing business 
with a million capital. There were private houses that cost 
$100,000. There were stamp mills and mining structures that cost 
$500,000 each. There were three daily newspapers, and a 
hotel that cost $300,000. Among the people were a score or 
more men, worth from $300,000 to $30,000,000. Mackay and 
Fair both lived there. There were three banks, a gas company, 
a water company, a splendid theatre and a costly court house. 
Eight years have passed and the town is a wreck. The 35,000 
people have dwindled to 5000. The banks have retired. The 
merchants have closed up and left ; the hotel is abandoned ; the 
gas company is bankrupt, and scores of costly residences have 
either been taken to pieces and moved away, or given over to bats. 
Real estate cannot be given away for taxes. Nothing can be sold 
that will cost its worth to move away. The rich men have all 
gone. Those who remain are the miners, their superintendents, 
and the saloon men and gamblers. The latter are usually the first 
to come to a mining town and the last to leave. The cause of 
this decadence, which has swallowed up millions of capital and 
wrecked the worldly ambition of thousands of persons, is the 
failure of the Comstock mines to turn out additional wealth. 

Since its discovery, in 1860, there have been taken from that 
single vein, in a space of less than 3,000 lineal feet, no less than 
$285,000,000 of gold and silver, and of this about $110,000,000 
came from the Bonanza mines alone. Exclude Flood, Mackay, 
Fair and Sharon from the list, and those who have preserved 
the fortunes, made on the Comstock, may be counted on 
one's fingers. But the millions upon millions that have been sunk 
in the whirlpool of speculation are almost incalculable. San Fran- 



Thrilling Experiences in the Mines. 99 



Cisco is to-day full of financial, physical and moral wrecks, by the 
treachery of the great Comstock and the illusive hopes of the 
gambling multitude." 

And the Comstock was the great gold and silver lode of the 
known world, having yielded, it is said, about $500,000,000 
to date. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Building the U. P, and Central railroads. — A general rugged prospecting 
tour of seven months in Nevada, Idaho and Montana. — On to Wash- 
ington Territory. — The country, climate, soil, scenery, fishing, hunt- 
ing, incidents, etc., etc. — Finding the true source of the fine gold in 
the Snake and Columbia rivers. — The more famous of the Idaho 
Placer mines. 

It was February, 1870. The U. P. and Central Pacific Rail- 
roads were completed a few months previously. As the 
Government had given these companies more money and other 
means than was required to build the roads, they could afford 
to, and they did spent it with an oj)en hand in rushing them 
through. This made times good and lively along the route, so 
that money was made rapidly in various ways and channels of 
trade, by live men, with but little money capital. For example: 
one with a few pony teams could make a stake in a short time, 
in grading or teaming on or along the road. The wages paid 
were high — five dollars or more per day for a fifty or sixty 
dollar team, and driver, to scrape, etc., and the wages were 
doubled for night and Sunday work. 

Several of my acquaintances had left the mines for the 
railroad, and had done far better than we, who remained to dig 
it out of the ground. 

The Northern Pacific railroad had now been chartered by 
Congress, with a land grant more than sufficient to build and 
equip it, with a provision, that the road had to be built immedi- 
ately, or the Empire of land would revert to the people. There- 
fore, it was the talk and general belief that it would be pushed 
through at once, and that the opportunities for earning money 
on the N. P. would be good, if not equal, to that on the U. P. 
and Central. 

The glittering prospects in the mining regions were blasted 
since the railroad was built, but I was not yet quite satisfied to 
give up the chase ; mainly, because of my love of travel and 
adventure, and I would now have the advantage of my previous 
three years' active experience in quartz, making me somewhat 
expert in the business. 

(100) 




(101) 



A Canyon. 



102 Idaho and Montana. 



So I concluded to now make an extensive, general prospect- 
ing tour through the wild mountain ranges to the north, for 
both quartz and placer diggings, and for the pleasure of travel; 
and if unsuccessful in finding any ground enticing enough to 
cling to, would terminate my travels at Puget Sound, or else 
where near the proposed route of the Northern Pacific railroad. 

Accordingly, during the succeeding seven months, I visited 
several mining districts and camps in Nevada, Idaho and 
Montana, and prospected, more or less, the mountain ranges 
intervening. Was in the Owyhee, Upper Snake and Salmon 
river regions, and in the mountains at the source of the Jeffer- 
son Fork of the Missouri river. 

I noticed some spots of pretty good farming land on the 
Humboldt river in Nevada, about the northern line of the 
state, and in Idaho, also in Lemhi and Bitter-root valleys, near 
the summit of the Eockies in Montana, also much good grazing 
country. But I saw far more that is i agged, shaggy, barren 
and forbidding. I talked with immigrants from good localities 
in the Western States, and on asking one why they chose to 
leave what I considered fairer sections of country to live in, to 
settle in such a wild region, he answered : that these valleys 
were like the places they had left — very enticing at a distance ; 
or in his own words, "they are hell a good ways off." Neither 
had filled the pictures of their imaginations. 

Was at the two great falls of Snake river, 175 and 260 feet 
fall, and enjoyed some beautiful scenery, but the most of it is 
dreary and distressing. Had good fishing sometimes, — in the 
upper Snake there were plenty of salmon trout, weighing ten 
or fifteen pounds, and very fat. Game— including bear, wild- 
cat, etc., — was likewise quite plentiful, though not by any 
means as much so as we usually read about, and is generally 
supposed. 

Climbed over snow-clad mountains— wading and plunging 
in the snow in July, and the next day or two would be suffer- 
ing with heat in some valley below. 

Generally found plenty of company in various prospecting 
parties. Many of these men were highly learned and experi- 
enced in the world, and of fine feelings, while even the others 




M^lti :P>Ji 



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(103) 



104 Idaho and Montana. 



are agreeable companions for a time, to one who knows how to 
take them. 

I will note a little incident of many, I would like to give, 
in illustration of the generous traits possessed by many who 
despise the selfish, sign- and grisp-machine charity (?). 

Meeting a party of miners with their pack animals on their 
way to a settlement and store for supplies, (they being settled 
and working a Placer claim) I borrowed a pocket knife of one 
of them, as we stopped for a moment to talk, as I had lost my 
own. He would not receive it back or any pay for it, " as he 
would soon be where he could get another," he said. It was a 
fancy one, worth three dollars. They also furnished some of our 
party with provisions in the same way. We had never met 
before, and never expected to again. If we should go with 
them to their rough cabin home, we could see gold dust in a 
segar box on a shelf, or in a powder keg, and as long as it lasted 
no one would be allowed to pass them by in need. 

Those who experience in themselves and appreciate in 
others the pure pleasure in these unguilded, unselfish, genial 
traits, should be judged in kind whenever they fall among pro- 
fessional " charitable " brethren, as they are pretty sure to do 
sometime, being neither cunning nor cruel. 

Having a good outfit, permitting nothing to worry me, and 
having no great expectations to be shattered, that season of 
travel was mostly a picnic. The rugged side was in fording 
rapid and rocky streams, and others having deceitful bottoms 
of mire; crossing steep, rocky gorges, and through African 
jungles, woven with fallen timber. 

My horses became so accustomed to climbing, jumping 
and sliding, that they were so reckless of danger, that their 
often superior judgment could not be trusted. Sometimes, 
however, they would pick their way and somehow get over or 
through places, where one could not see any possible way, 
when often a mis-step would send them tumbling to roaring 
waters in the rocky gorges, hundreds of feet below, and when 
weary, would jump at the opposite side of a ditch or against a 
ledge, or fallen trees, when they knew they must fall back. 

Sometimes flies and mosquitoes were so thick and masonic, 
that we had to blanket our horses for a slight protection ; so it 



The Idaho Placer Miisks. lOo 

was no wonder they would leave us alone with strauj^e Indians, 
to take up with their horses that were free. But a small 
number of horses, if their leaders are kindly treated, are not 
apt to leave a camp unless they know of better company near by. 
And a single animal will hardly ever leave its rider in a strange 
and lonely place. My pack-horse was no more trouble in 
travelling, than a dog — being as sure to follow. Once on the 
side of a deep gorge he fell, rolled over a time or two and 
landed against a log. After he had climbed back, I, with my 
foot, started the log tumbling to the bottom, which I could not 
see. While more lost and separated than usual, I was twenty- 
four hours without water ; the day was hot, got past being 
thirsty and became sick, so the water did not taste good when 
I found it, which I did by my horses scenting it at a distance. 

Found beaver quite plentiful in places. In their work is 
displayed a reasoning faculty equal to that of some men. In 
felling trees for dams, they cut them so as to fall where they 
want them. 

One night we were all awoke by the rumbling sound and 
three distinct shocks of an earthquake, but could hear nothing 
about it on reaching habitations. 

Ice sometimes formed at night at our camps, in July and 
August. 

My whereabouts that season were so uncertain, that I re- 
ceived letters which had been re-mailed half a dozen times. 

As to the golden object in that season's prospecting: — 
Found several prospects in quartz, about equal to that I had 
left in Nevada, and in placer diggings many places that would 
yield one to two dollars a day, but none that would probably 
pay to work at that time. The whole country had been pretty 
closely prospected, and the paying ground worked. I was 
now satisfied as to this, and tired of the business, of the 
mountains, and of rambling about in this way. 

I learned, that times were pretty good in Washington 
Territory, and horses were cheap in the Walla Walla section. 
So I decided to go there and work at whatever I found to do, 
and buy as many horses as I was able, to work with on the N. 
P. railroad, whenever its construction was commenced in 
earnest. 



106 Idaho and Montana. 



Arriving at Fort Owens, in Bitter-root valley, Montana — 
which valley was then being settled and improved — I found 
myself on one of the proposed routes of the N. P. K. K. 

"With a single companion struck West through the 
mountains by the Lo Lo Indian trail for Lewiston, Idaho, and 
the Walla Walla, Washington Territory country, fifty or one 
hundred miles beyond it. Lewiston being situated on the 
western verge of the pan-handle of Idaho, near the head of 
navigation on Snake river, 400 miles from Portland, Oregon, and 
495 miles by water from the mouth of the Columbia river. 

On the way to Lewiston, we fell in with a couple of rail- 
road surveying parties, who were hunting for a route ; also 
numerous Nez-Perce Indians, on tlieir way home from hunting 
buffalo and fighting the Sioux on their own or neutral hunting 
grounds in the Yellowstone country. 

The Grouse, or "fool hen," is a bird of the same family, 
it appears to me, as the partridge and pheasant. They differ 
from each other in about the same degree as do the Chinamen, 
Esquimaux and Indians. Inhabiting different climates, and 
compelled to live by different modes and food, may account for 
all the difference found in them. As to the difference in dialect, 
this can be comprehended and accounted for by observing the 
same in different local districts among the same race of 
white men — in those of the East, South and West— after so 
short a time and with such comparative free and frequent 
communication and mingling with each other. We found this 
bird so plentiful and tame at many places on this trip, that we 
could kill most any amount of them with sticks, as we rode 
along. 

Camped by a hot sulphur flowing spring on this Lo Lo 
trail, and enjoyed a bath in its blue waters where it formed a 
pond, cool enough for comfort. 

These mountains are craggy, but thickly wooded with much 
good timber of fir, tamerack, spruce, cedar and pine. 

On the western slope are some fertile prairie valleys, and 
on approaching Lewiston (twenty-four miles east from where 
I finally settled to make a home) found ourselves in a good 
prairie farming country, though not inhabited, except by 
Indians. Here we found a Government Indian Agenc}', also a 



The Idaho Placer Mines. 107 

military post and the American flag. We called at the post for 
information as to our whereabouts. Afterwards I sold grain 
here that I had raised. 

There is fine, light gold in the bars of Snake river, any- 
where from near its source to its confluence with the Columbia 
(150 miles below Lewiston), also in the Columbia and Salmon 
rivers, which was supposed by many to come from some fabu- 
lous rich fountain or quartz deposits in the rugged mountains 
at the rivers' source. But we had found this not to be the 
case, but that the rivers flowing, as they do, through a gold- 
bearing country, where a color can be found most anywhere, 
got their supply from the natural washes and streams tributary 
to them, with the annual wash of sand, gravel, mud and drift. 
Hundreds of Chinamen and some white men mine, with rockers, 
on the bars of these rivers, during the low stage of water, mak- 
ing one or two dollars per day. 

Orofino, Warrens, and other rich placer camps, which 
created such excitement and brought Idaho into notice in the 
states, in 1860, are in these Salmon river and Clearwater moun- 
tains. Lewiston being their point of supply and wintering 
place. Its climate nearly equals that of the valleys of Cali- 
fornia. 

For a year or two the lowest price for supplies was one 
dollar a pound at the mines, and they created a splendid 
market for many years ; which started many into farming in the 
Walla Walla country, and gave it and them a good start in the 
world. The old Indian and packing trails to Walla Walla and 
beyond are ten or fifteen in width, and tramped deep in the 
fertile soil ; and mining is still going on at those famous camps, 
and pack trains are still trailing to and from Lewiston. I had 
been acquainted with different ones in Nevada, who had 
travelled through this country from California and Oregon, 
and dug gold in these mines, so I had in advance quite an 
accurate idea as to each. 



CHAPTER VIM. 

A comprehensive description of the Walla Walla country; soil, climate 
and productions, and the lay of the land. — Hire out on a farm for two 
months. — The secret of success and failure in government and corpo- 
ration contracts — Secret intrigue at military jDOsts, etc. — Experience 
in work in the mountain. — Locate a land claim and get married. — 
A year's experience. 

Arrived in Lewiston about the middle of September, 1870. 
Crossed the river into Washington Territory, and travelled 
north-west for eight miles over a somewhat sterile grazing 
country near the river ; when I came onto a wooded creek with 
narrow bottom (the Alpowa), inhabited and farmed somewhat 
by Indians, for a few miles, and by an old Yankee bachelor who 
kept a hotel and stage station, and raised cattle. Said, he had 
found it to be the best economy to provide flour, instead of 
other feed, for his stock, when the weather was such that they 
needed feeding. (It was at the head of this creek, to the south- 
w^est, that I afterwards built my home). Leaving this creek by 
a big hill, and riding for ten miles over a level bunch-grass 
prairie (destitute of water and wood, but a belt of timber was 
plainly to be seen twelve to fifteen miles to the south), when I 
went down another big hill on to another creek (the Pataha), 
having a bottom quite destitute of wood, and about a quarter 
of a mile wide for twenty-five miles to Snake river. 

The upper portion, reaching back into the Blue mountain 
about thirty miles, being still more contracted and more 
wooded. All of it, from its source to its mouth, is quite fenced 
in by high, abrupt hills on either side, and so is the Alpowa. 

From the top of these hills, vast, thickly-planted bunch 
grass prairies extend north to Snake river some fifteen miles, 
and south to the timber of the Blue mountains about the same 
distance away. These prairies, however, are more or less cut 
up with ravines and gulches, are scantily watered and com- 
pletely destitute of wood. I found this creek bottom, or the 
most of it that was fit for cultivation (the lower portion), 
settled up and farmed, but the adjoining prairies were entirely 
unoccupied, except by a few bands of cattle and horses belong- 

(108) 



Locate a Land Claim and get Makried. 109 

ing to the creek settlers. The farmers here were threshing 
their grain with a ten or twelve horse power machine. They 
had to collect and change work with each other for a distance 
of ten or fifteen miles to form a threshing crew. They being 
short of help, and I having but a few dollars left, stopped and 
worked for them a few days, at two dollars a day, which seemed 
very small wages to me then. 

The yield of wheat, oats and barley was thirty to sixty 
bushels to the acre, and the up-prairie land appeared equally 
as fertile. The nights being always cool, this is not a good 
corn country. 

Following this creek for eleven miles, it changed its course 
to the north, while the road and old Indian and pack trails left 
it by winding up a hill 700 or 800 feet high, thence over a 
level prairie for a mile, when I looked down into a Canyon 
(Tu-Canyon) 1200 to 1500 feet deep, having a stream with 
wooded bottom, a few hundred yards wide. The wood on 
these streams is mostly cotton-wood, birch, alder and pine. 

A few spots on this stream were being farmed for hay, by 
men with stock, as a safe winter retreat. 

Crossing this Canyon, I found, spread out as far as I could 
see, another similar vast rolling fertile prairie country, with 
richer hollows, coves or bottoms, and blessed with an occasion- 
al spring or stream of good water; but wood still to be seen onh* 
in the one direction — many miles away to the south. After 
about eight miles of unbroken prairie, I found the hollows and 
choice spots by the road settled, and more or less farmed, 
according to the time, means and energy of the settler in haul- 
ing fencing and other wood, fifteen to twenty miles — there 
being no barbed wire then. 

On approaching Walla Walla, the country was more 
thickly settled and improved, there being streams Avith more 
extensive bottoms, bordered by less abrupt hills, and wooded 
sufficient for immediate fencing and domestic use. Though 
much of the soil along these streams was not as productive as 
that of the hollows, or even the extreme upland prairies, until 
made so by irrigation. 

Near Walla Walla the lay of the land becomes less broken 
by ravines ; but to speak of this Walla Walla country as a 



110 The Walla Walla Country. 

valley, is misleading. The stream Walla Walla has a little 
narrow valley to be sure, but it don't amount to much, except 
in rare spots. The same is true of even the Columbia, Snake 
and other rivers at a distance from the coast. They might 
have had broad fertile valleys or bottoms, like the Sacramento, 
Mississippi, Ohio and the Mohawk, but they hav'nt. I mean 
to give a true and comprehensive, though brief description of 
Eastern Washington, and the settling thereof, such as may 
also give an accurate idea of that north of the Columbia and 
Snake, as well as of that portion of Idaho adjoining, as these 
sections are similar. With their fertile soil, each has its deeply 
embedded streams, narrow vales and ravines, steep and long 
hills and sections of rocky waste land, or suited only for graz- 
ing. Each having its mountain range, for timber and wood 
supply, to tap the rain clouds and giving variety of climate 
and scenery. 

Singular though it may seem, during the most severe 
winters the mercury sinks lowest in the lowest altitudes, and 
snow falls there quite as deep at such times as elsewhere. 
Stock have wintered with less loss in hard winters, on some 
opening back in the mountains, than others on the Columbia 
and Snake rivers. The best lands are usually found near the 
mountain ranges, and the lighter, dryer and poorer soil as the 
Columbia and Snake rivers are approached, though irrigation 
would, and sometimes does, where practicable, make this the 
best, and the springs are a month or more earlier here than at 
the higher altitudes, and less snow usually falls. But it gets 
ten to fifteen degrees hotter than on the upland prairies ; it 
being sometimes one hundred degrees and more. And it is 
covered with a bank of cold fog for several weeks in the winter, 
while the sun is shining bright and warm on the high prairies. 

Every four or five years there is a hard winter, when the 
mercury sinks to twenty or thirty degrees below zero for a few 
weeks. But where there is an open range that has not been 
over-stocked, horses that are not worked will winter all right 
without feeding ; and cattle need to be fed but a month or two, 
and some winters not any. 

The warm trade or "chinook" winds from the South- 
Pacific are a great blessing to this country in winter ; they 



Locate a Land Claim and get Married. Ill 

come with black clouds — as a thunder shower comes, and 
sometimes bare the ground of a foot of snow in a day or night; 
but they cannot be counted on. The winter winds from the 
opposite direction are stinging cold. 

I continued my journey from Lewiston for about sixty 
miles, to near where Dayton was afterwards built and become 
the county seat of a new county (Columbia), composed of a 
part of Walla Walla county, which before embraced all the 
region between the Columbia and Snake rivers and the Oregon 
line. Since, Garfield and Asotin counties have been formed 
out of Columbia. Dayton is on the Tou-Chet (Tii-she) stream, 
and this section was then known as the "Upper Tou-Chet." 

I hired to work for a farmer for two months, at $35.00 a 
month. — This was the first and only good farming country I had 
seen since leaving Eastern Nebraska, over four years before, 
except that in Salt Lake valley and in Southern California. 

Here I found improved farms with orchards, barns, colts, 
calves, lambs, geese, chickens, women, children and girls in 
their teens, with an occasional buggy or side-saddle to be seen. 
So considering me having been raised on a farm and at home, 
and then having been for about five years roving about— a 
homeless wanderer, in wild, unsettled desert regions, unblessed 
with the innocent prattle of children or the voice of women — 
is it any wonder that having become tired of such a life, I was 
impressed, as the plains-tired traveller is on reaching Salt 
Lake and Los Angeles, with their fruitful trees and vines, mead- 
ows, flowers, singing birds and flowing streams, and as 
Mohammed was when he beheld Damascus and exclaimed, that 
"man can enter but (*ne paradise." 

I worked with a threshing machine, as it changed about 
for the man I hired to, for a couple of weeks, and was impressed 
with the bountiful yield of grain, the ground being new and 
only the choice spots in cultivation. I then put in the most of 
the remainder of the two months in hauling rails and wood 
from the mountain for him. 

My employer was related to one who had recently been a 
Government Indian agent, and himself had been engaged at an 
agency and military post ; and I having before and since be- 
come intimately acquainted with Government contractors, etc., 



112 The Walla Walla Country. 

and also with intelligent agency Indians (one of whom wrote 
for me the story of his life, which I may give), together with 
my personal observations, enabled me to become informed con- 
cerning aJffairs at such places and the mode by which ring 
favorites get fortunes and outsiders are crushed in dealing with 
Government secret ring agents or officers. I will give a few 
points for the information of those who are curious to know 
how it is, that one man can take a Government contract for 
supplies and make money out of it, while his neighbor, possess- 
ing superior business abilities, would lose money. 

For example, will consider the grain, hay, wood and horse 
supply. The allowance of these, as with other supplies also, 
is usually greater than is necessary for the service. Proposals 
are duly advertised for a certain quantity or amount of either, 
(it being the full amount allowed or to be suffered for a certain 
time), the same to be of "the best quality," or "per sample," 
and to be delivered by or during a stated time, or at the 
pleasure of the Grand Master, as the case may be. Now this 
time may be while the roads are almost impassable, and while 
the outsider will be required to fulfill the contract to the exact 
letter, the secret brother, who can be relied on as to " division 
and secrecy," under the obligations and penalties of the ring, 
knows that the time will be modified to suit his (their) inter- 
ests, and that the quantity, with him, need only be such as is 
barely necessary for the service ; though the full amount allow- 
ed is receipted, booked and paid for. Thus are favorite con- 
tractors and their gangs enriched by government and corpora- 
tion contracts, even when the figures are heloio the market price. 

In the West but comparatively little forage is necessary or 
really used, as the stock usually runs out to grass on the ranges 
all the year. In buying horses and mules, none but those fully 
up to the standard will be received from a full-fledged citizen 
of the Government, while from some one who is a sworn subject 
of a lurking, foreign, pagan-government, most anything in horse 
or mule shape is often taken. 

I have known several men who were badly bitten by count- 
ing on some of the concessions always accorded to secret sub- 
jects. The difference in the cost between a favorite and out- 
sider in filling a contract is often twenty-five to fifty per cent. 




w 
o 



-51 

a 

o 
o 






114 The "Walla Walla Country. 

An example given me by the party wlio furnished the wood, 
and who had occasion to procure full proof of the following ex- 
amples of loyalty : For the post, and the year alluded to, the 
Government allowed and paid for 575 cords of wood, at $5.50 
per cord, equal to $3,162.50 ; while all that was really bought 
or paid for was 350 cords, at $2.50 per cord, equal to $875.00. 
What per cent, of loyalty is that ? 

They also received from the Government, that is not good 
enough for them, pay for 500 rations at a time, supposed to be 
issued to the Indians, when the highest number was really but 
forty-five, and this of condemned stores. What per cent, of 
loyalty is this ? 

Now take the annual appropriations of Congress, and see 
what sworn secrecy-under-horrible-penalties in office is costing 
Uncle Sam in money alone ! 

My informant as to these mere examples, said, he reported 
these facts, with the indisputahle proof thereof, to two city 
editors, but they, being subjects of the same secret government, 
would not publish them. That he also reported the same to 
the Government at Washington, to find that the influence of 
their secret government extended there also and was supreme. 

And jobs were put up against his life, and the courts were 
prostituted to get him out of the way, so he could not make 
any more trouble with their " mysteries." 

When extra transportation and supplies are required, as in 
case of an Indian outbreak — which is often purposely induced by 
the lurking subjects themselves — they get contracts to supply 
it at fourteen prices, and then sub-let it to others, who do the 
work and furnish the supplies for small pay. 

After a gang has made such a raid against the Government 
in the name of the Indians, and has the plunder divided up and 
secured, ilicn a few journals, as a cloak for their servility, come 
out of the dark as follows, but they dare not strike at the root 
and secrec}' of the evil; and they are brazen in the assumption, 
that the officials at Washington do not know the " true inward- 
ness " of these jobs in advance, after forty years' experience iviih 
the same game. 

"The Government has finally begun to see the 'true inward- 
ness ' of the xVrizona ' Indian war,' and peace may be looked for 



Locate a Land Claim and get Married. 115 



now any day. Not a solitary Indiau was killed, not a sin-le 
pioneer miner, or any other man who minded his own busine"ss 
was molested, bnt several enterprising [?] men made a million or 
so, a piece, out of the scare ; and it was started for no other pur- 
pose Crook broke the Apaches' backbone years ago; the pooi- 
wretches haven't vim enough left to fight a coyote." 

When my two months' job expired, the most profitable 
^^ork I had learned o was that of making rails and clap-boards 
n the mountain for the farmers living out on the streams and 
hollows Rails were worth twenty dollars, and clap-boards 
fifteen c ollars per thousand at the stump, and the timber- 
tamerack, fir and pine— split well. 

There was a small company of men thus engaged, who 
tried to discourage me, saying, that on account of the scarcity 
of money there was only a small cash demand for such work 
I, however found that it could be readily traded for stock' 
especially horses, which was good enough pay for me. So I 
bought an outfit and six months' supply of grub and went to 
work in the timber where I split my first rail and clap-board. 
Shingles were also being made there, by hand, at four dollars 
and hlty cents per thousand. 

I worked here the most of the ensuing ten months, and 
though not very rugged, and unable to do as much hard work 
as other men, I made 8000 rails and 55,000 clap-boards, which 
was more than was done by any other man about me or whom 
1 knew of, though to hear many of them talk, they could do 
and did more work in one day, than I could in three; and may 
be they could, but, somehow, they had not much to show in re- 
sults for their superior ability, and those who had farms had 
poor fences, and their shelter was like that noted in sonc. by 

eight hundred dollai^ worth of horses and other property, and 
had spent more in living than any of them. Besides this I 
m^anwhie located a land claim on the prairie, fourteen mlf 
a^ay and built on it a twelve by fourteen feet lumber cabin 
which claim Isold for a hundred dollar mule and fifty dollars! 
Had also spent many pleasant Sundays and other days with 
hospitable farmer friends living in the valleys, and in riding 



116 The Walla. TValla Country. 

over the prairies and in shaded vales in yet more congenial 
company. 

I kept a saddle horse with me in summer, and as I put on 
a clean shirt once in a while, rode about more than my timber 
companions; did not boast of fabulous amounts of work that I 
had not and could not do, or even what I did, and asked so 
many fool questions in friendly satire, and as though I hardl}^ 
knew what timber, land, and work really was ; was therefore 
looked upon by some of the innocent settlers with an air of sus- 
picion, or of ridicule, that was amusing in its crude simplicity 
in judging human character. 

Having been out and about in company with a timber com- 
panion, he came to me one day in great trouble and vexation of 
spirit, saying there was a " terrible story out about us." "Why !" 
says he, " they take me for a highwayman and call you the gentle- 
man rail-maker," and he felt that we were fatally slandered and 
should weep and wail, or else curse and fight together in 
putting the stigma down. 

Once I had 4000 clap-boards to make in a trade for a 
horse, when one of the boys told me that it would please my 
customer to make them very thick ; so I made them very thick. 
Then he reported to him that I "had made a lot of wide staves 
for him, instead of thin clap-boards, the kind he wanted." So 
he spent a day in coming to see about it, but was satisfied 
when I promised to suit him entirely ; which I did by simply 
splitting each one into two in a little Avhile, which he himself 
could have done at home, making twenty dollars a day in doing 
it. While I afforded some amusement to my generous com- 
panions in toil, I (being incompetent, an orphan and stranger 
in a strange land) — was also a subject of anxiety and care to 
some, who kindly made my business and social genial Avelfare 
their ardent concern. This brings my story to the fall of 1871. 

The prospect of the early building of the N. P. j-ailroad 
had waned, as it was noi to be built until other railroads were 
built without any subsidy and the country was settled up, so 
it would be a paying investment at once ; thus having the great 
land grant as a clear gift, if, through secret intrigue with 
brethren in office, they could hold it against the law. 

Fire had destroyed the manufacturing business of my 




< 









(117) 



118 The Walla Walla Country. 

father, and he and my mother had died, so the scenes of my 
boyhood, thus saddened, had less attraction for me than when I 
left them; and finding here apparently as favorable an opportun- 
ity to settle down and prosper, as would be afforded elsewhere, 
I concluded to remain, get married, make as good a home as I 
was able to carve out of the wilderness, and grow up with the 
country. 

Was married the same fall, a year after my arrival in the 
country. 



CHAPTER IX. 

A brief description of Eastern and Western Wasliington, and of the 
various sections in eacli. — Tlieir industries and inducements. — Their 
advantages and their disadvantages. 

vV ASHINGTON is the most north-western territory, or state, 
belonging to the Union, with the exception of Alaska. It lies 
about ten degrees north of Washington City, D. C. Yet the 
eastern part is not as cold in winter as New Jersey, the ground 
seldom being frozen as much as six inches deep ; and the west- 
ern part is not as cold in winter as it is at Washington City on 
the Potomac, and it is more healthy. 

Irrigation is not absolutely necessary anywhere in the 
state, to raise crops ; but some sections in the eastern part get 
very dry and very dusty, and most anywhere more or less irri- 
gation is, or would be, if water was accessible, very beneficial, 
and so it would be in the states. Though it rains more in 
summer in the states, than it does here, or anywhere else on 
this coast. But the soil is such that in unusual dry seasons 
half a crop is raised without any rain or irrigation. 

The state, as a whole, is separated into two natural 
divisions, known as Western and Eastern Washington, the 
Cascade range of mountains intervening. It contains, besides 
the mountainous regions, which are covered with timber and 
wood, nearly 50,000 square miles of pasture and agricultural 
lands. About four-sevenths of these are classified as timbered, 
two-sevenths as bunch-grass prairie, and one-seventh as alluvial 
bottom lands. Over half of the timbered and nearly all the 
bottom lands lie in the western section ; while the bunch-grass 
prairie lands are all in the eastern part. 

The annual rainfall in Western Washington is about 
seventy inches, and in Eastern Washington about thirty inches. 

Extending far inland from the Pacific ocean into Western 
Washington is Puget Sound. Although sufficiently narrow to 
admit of both shores being seen at the same time, it is in all 
parts of sufficient depth to accommodate the largest ocean- 
going steamers, and in places it is a hundred fathoms deep. It 

(119y 



120 Eastern and "Western Washington. 

has a shore line about sixteen hundred miles in length, and in- 
cludes a series of land-locked harbors, in which the " navies of 
the world " might anchor in safety. Emptying into it on every 
side are numerous streams, some of which are navigable for 
many miles into the interior. The bottoms of these streams 
are very fertile, and some are spacious, nor are they unhealthy, 
as is so usual in the states. These, as well as the bottoms on 
the streams that empty into Grays Harbor, Shoal Water Bay 
and the lower Columbia river, are the best tame-grass sections 
on the Pacific coast, if not in the United States. These bottoms 
are from, say, one to six miles wide, and fifteen or twenty of 
these streams are navigable— the Chehalis for sixty miles at all 
seasons of the year. 

But these bottoms are mostly covered with a dense growth 
of brush, vine-maple, alder, cedar, spruce and other timber. 

Nearly the whole of Western Washington is covered with 
a dense forest, composed of fir, cedar, spruce, with some oak, 
vine and curley maple, alder and other vegetation, belonging 
to a warm, humid climate. Between the Sound and the ocean 
are the Olympic mountains, with snow-capped peaks ; and 
between it and the ocean is the best unsettled section of country 
that I know of at this time (1889). Mount Rainier, or Tacoma, 
in the Cascade range, is near 15,000 feet high, and its top is 
always white with snow. The " Sound Country " has numerous 
thriving towns, Seattle, Tacoma, Port Townsend and Olympia 
being the largest. The country bordering upon the Sound and 
extending back to the mountains, is rich in coal and lumber, 
and the soil, when cleared, is more or less productive for hay, 
grain and vegetables, also fruits and berries. There are sections 
that are most excellent for apples, pears and plums. Coal is 
shipped in large quantities to San Francisco. There is quite 
a variety of fish in the Sound, and they are abundant ; and so 
are clams on the beach. 

Cedar trees are frequently 200 feet in height, and firs some- 
times 300 feet, and 100 feet to the first limb. Spars and other 
rare ship timbers are conveyed from Puget Sound to all parts 
of the world. Common lumber is shipped principally to Cali- 
fornia, Central and South America, Australia and the Sandwich 
Islands. It is a great lumber region, if not the greatest in the 



Eastern and Western Washington. 121 

world. Seine of the mills ciit about 500,000 feet a clay, each. — 
The Sound hawks will ride on hogs' backs while they root 
up clams on the beach, then snatching one will fly high in the 
air, and directly over some rocky spot, letting the clam drop, 
to break it open. 

The climate of Western Washington is warm and wet, the 
average winter temperature being about thirty-three degrees 
above zero, with lots of rain. During the summer season it 
rains less and the temperature is milder, but the climate is 
quite even the year round. Flowers are often seen blooming 
in the gardens in the midst of winter. The scenery is grand, 
especiall)' in summer when the air is free of fog and smoke. 

Eastern Washington is as different from Western Washing- 
ton as one country could well be from another. Generally 
speaking, it is an open, or timberless region, and is therefore 
chiefly useful as a farming and grazing country. Its chief 
rivers are the Columbia and Snake, which have their junction 
near the center of the state. Besides these rivers are numerous 
smaller streams, that have their sources in the mountain ranges 
- some of them flowing eastward from the Cascades, some from 
the Blue mountains, which lie to the south-east, and some from 
the Coeur d'Alene mountains in northern Idaho. These 
streams, with the exception of the Columbia and Snake, are 
more or less wooded. They are all more or less deeply im- 
bedded below the farming country, the upper portions being 
deep canyons. The Columbia and Snake are bordered with 
sand and gravel, and rocky bluffs ; the small streams with rich 
alluvial bottoms and rocky bluffs. 

Taking one's position upon some elevated point, and look- 
ing over this vast region of Eastern Washington, the general 
appearance is that of an endless contiguity of grass-covered, 
gently waving hills. Thus viewed at a distance, the color of 
the landscape is that of a dull gray. The scene is monotonous; 
grand, but not beautiful, and* it makes one feel lonesome. 
These timberless hills are covered with bunch-grass or grain. 
This grass and a mild, dry climate, made Eastern Washington, 
Eastern Oregon and Idaho a good stock country. Passing 
through the country, especially through the settled portions, 
the scene is more interesting, as it has lost its sameness and 



122 Eastern and Western Washington. 

gained in variety. Nestled in among these timberless hills and 
flats, on one stream or another, are towns and villages, and 
cities of nou-producers ; they are about one quarter of the 
population of the country ; are organized into secret charitable 
(?) gangs, and thrive by ruling and filching the producer, 
home-builder and immigrants — they earn almost nothing, but 
steal almost everything — the courts being in their control. 
They are to the people, what the English and German trader 
is to the natives of countries they have conquered. 

"For knaves to thrive on — mysterious enough: 
Dark, tangled doctrines, dark as fraud can weave." 

" They linked their souls 

By a dark oath in hell's own language framed." 

These towns and villages are surrounded with fertile and 
productive farms. The soil is generally a rich, ashy loam, 
which is easily plowed and cultivated, and grain, vegetable and 
fruit are produced with much less labor, than in most other 
countries. But for the reasons heretofore and hereafter given, 
over eighty per cent, of the farms are mortgaged, and the whole 
country is held under tribute that would make the Egyptian, 
the Hottentot, the Sepoy, or the Chinaman rebel in his own 
country. Therefore, farms can be bought cheap. " Except the 
virtuous, men ought to he slaves, because they are either Avicked 
themselves, or are ready to crouch before the wicked. A 
feeble herd, happy to crouch to a master." 

Eastern Washington is divided up into numerous large or 
small districts or sections, usually bearing names which they 
have derived from streams passing through them. The 
oldest of these is the Walla Walla country, which surrounds a 
city of the same name. North of this — across the Snake river 
— is the Palouse country, the Spokane country, and the Big 
Bend countr}-, all lying east and south of the Columbia river, 
and west of Idaho. 

West of the Columbia river and east of the Cascade 
mountain is embraced the remainder of Eastern Washington. 
This region is divided into two large districts, known as the 
Klickitat country and the Yakima country. 

''The Yakima country lies north of the Klickitat, and in- 
cludes an area of nearly ten thousand square miles. The western 



Eastern and Western Washington. 123 

boimdary being the Cascade range of mountains. The Yakima 
country is penetrated from that direction by numerous long spurs 
which trend eastward in the direction of the Columbia. Between 
these long hills or spurs are numerous fertile valleys. By some 
freak of nature the Yakima river, which runs southward and 
eastward, cuts tlirough these long hills at nearly right angles, and 
in this way crosses the several valleys comprising the Yakima 
country. The first, and one of the largest of these valleys 
through which the river passes, after it flows from the Cascade 
mountains, is the Kittitas valley, which is the centre of a county, 
with Ellensburg as the county seat. Fifteen to twenty miles to 
the north of Ellensburg is an extensive coal region, perhaps the 
best in the state. And to the north of this are gold, silver and 
other mines. Further down the river, from Ellensburg, south 
and east of Kittitas, are numerous smaller valleys, including the 
Wenas, Selah, Natcheez and the Ahtanum. In the latter valle}-, 
at the junction of a little stream, known as Ahtanum, with the 
Yakima river, is the town of Yakima. Opposite this town (being 
like an extension of the Ahtanum valley) is a level, fertile tract of 
country known as the Moxee. Immediately south of town, the 
river cuts throuth another of the long hills above mentioned, and 
enters another valley, the greater portion of which unfortunately 
is included within the Yakima Indian reservation. This is the 
finest valley or tract of land in Eastern Washington, and if it was 
available for settlement, would be one of the most productive [for 
tribute] sections in the West. [Of course] an effort is being made 
to acquire such portion of it as the Indians do not need [?] for 
their own use [?J, and if the movement is successful, Yakima City 
will at once become an important inland city." 

[There are also other people who have more land (that they 
have 6-tofe/i), and also more money (that they have stolen) ''than 
they need for their own use." Why not take or rather recover 
these fii'st?] 

"Opposite this reservation is an immense country. From the 
Yakima river it slopes back and rises gently until it reaches the 
summit of a long range of hills, and then the slope is in the 
opposite direction and toward the Columbia. The general name 
given to it is Sunnyside. Below the reservation and on the 
opposite side of the Yakima river from Sunnyside, is a somewhat 
similar tract of country known as "Horse Heaven." It being a 
good range and largely occupied by horses. The Cascade branch of 



124 Eastern and Western Washington. 

the Northern Pacific railroad is constructed up the Yakima river, 
and, like the stream itself, passes through the numerous valleys. 
This section yields large crops of grain, hay, hops, vegetables and 
fruits, also tobacco, flax, broom-corn and sugar-cane. It has a 
mild climate and fertile soil." 

The Palouse, the Spokane and the Colville countries are, 
in one way and another, equal to the Yakima. The Palouse 
will produc3 much more grain, but less fruit, and so will the 
Spokane. And the Colville country is quite rich in lead and 
silver, with some gold, and has much fertile soil, with a superior 
stock range. 

But the Walla Walla country is naturally the best of all 
the sections, it being hardly surpassed anywhere in the world 
as a general farming and fruit country. 

In the foothills of the Blue mountains the soil was equal 
to the virgin soil of Illinois, and the climate generally much 
more congenial in winter. About six weeks is the average 
time that the ground is too much frozen to plow. -It catches 
more of the warm chinook winds than any other section. 

Apple and peach trees bear in three years from the seed, 
and there are localities where corn, melons, tomatoes and other 
vines grow and bear in great abundance. 

The Umatilla section in Eastern Oregon is considered as 
belonging to the Walla Walla country. The Grand Ronde 
valley, in the Blue mountains in Eastern Oregon, will compare 
favorably to the Palouse country in Washington. And the 
Boise country in Idaho is similar to the Yakima in its climate, 
soil and productions. 

Western Oregon is very similar, though larger and 
superior to Western Washington as a farming country. But 
it is older, and its timber and mineral resources are not as 
great as those f)f Western Washington. 

Oregon originally embraced the whole region from California 
Nevada and Utah to Alaska, and from the Pacific ocean to the 
Rocky mountains, and the Columbia river was named " Oregon." 

The water may be said to be universally good throughout 
the whole Northwest. 

" Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound, 
Save his own dashings." 




MuLTNOMA Falls, Columbia kivek, Oiiegon. 



(125) 



CHAPTER X. 

History of settling of the "Walla Walla country. — Report of Government 
experts, as to the soil. — Packing to the mines of Idaho. — The market 
and oiiiJortnnities. — The outlook in 1870, when I landed here. — The 
country grasped by its throat ; the Government prostituted — 1000 
miles of river navigation to the sea strangled, and the tribute that 
was levied. — The result. — The promised railroad. — First land claim 
I located. — Life in the beginning of a home, — Dangers and drawbacks. 
— My first outfit. — Sell my claim. — Hunt for and locate another in a 
new wild section. — Description of it and the locality. — My Indian 
neighbors; how they treated the first Avhite men they ever saw. — A 
homebuilder's land rights, and what he must necessarily endure. — 
Warned of the i^erj^lexities, conspiracies and ti'eason to be planted in 
the way. — How we started out to build a good and spacious home. — 
Our house, etc. — Travelling, moving and cami^iug in the West. — 25 
miles to blacksmith shojj, etc. — The "Egyi^ffor supplies. — T.aud 
claims located about us and abandoned, are re-located by others 
time and again. — My first crop. — Crickets one hundred, bushels to 
the acre. — So that we are left alone in the "France Settlement."' — 
The section surveyed and I "file my claim." — Raise hogs. — The 
result. — Get a band of cattle.— Experience on the range. ^Getting 
roads opened. — First railroad in Eastern Washington. — Struggling 
for a livelihood and home. — How I managed. — Other new settlements 
and people. — How they did. — "Land hunters." — Prove up, pay for 
and get patent for pre-emi3tion claim, and take a homestead claim ad- 
joining. — Co^Dy of U. S. patent. — How we just loi^ed along and ahead 
of the country. — It settles uj). — New County ; towns, etc., built. — 
Settlers swindled. —Build school-house, etc. , etc. 

i HE first settlements iu tlie Columbia and Snake river basin 
were at, or near Fort Walla Walla— afterwards the town of 
"Walla Walla ; and tlien on tlie through-road and pack-trails 
leading from Fort Wallula — on the Columbia river— to Walla- 
Walla, and thence easterly— by the way of Lewiston — to the 
mining camps and military posts in Idaho. 

The ferryage for crossing Snake river at Lewiston was six 
dollars for wagon and single team, and one dollar each for rid- 
ing and pack animals. And during the rush to the mines the 
travel was so great, that a single boat could hardly carry it ; at 
times hundreds had to wait their turn. 

These western ferry-boats are propelled by the current of 

a2fi) 



The "France Settlement" 127 

the stream, by keeping them diagonally against the current and 
in a direct course b}^ guy ropes, attached to pulleys rolling on a 
wire cable, stretched high across the river. 

This travel, emigration and military operations afforded 
the early settlers of the Walla Walla country a home market for 
many years, that was perhaps never surpassed in the West. 
They also secured the most desirable spots in the country for 
permanent homes — that of wooded streams with prairie bottoms. 

Some of these first settlers got their start by digging it out 
of the rich placers of Idaho or British Columbia ; others, by 
working at such, as teaming or packing to the mines, either on 
their own account, or by wages, at sixty to one hundred dollars 
a month ; while others again brought it with them across the 
plains, or from Oregon. 

Found their farm wagons worth here $200 or $300, cows 
$50 to $100, and good horses and mules also very high, and a 
good new range. 

There being large numbers of Indian horses already here, 
such and half-breeds were cheap. 

Up to the time I came here (1870), Government land was 
offered at private sale to anybody-, at $1.25, greenbacks, per 
acre, and as much as they wanted and could pay for. On 
account of the proximity to and richness of the mines, money 
was plenty; a good market was afforded (about one dollar a 
pound at the mines), so a settler with a broken leg made a 
stake out of an onion patch he tended in a season ; wages were 
high ; all kinds of business applicable to the country and situ- 
ation, gave large returns, and the mines did not begin to fail till 
1865. And, until it became thickly settled around them, they 
had a very healthy climate. Never before, or since, did home 
seekers have such splendid opportunities as the Walla Walla 
country afforded to its first settlers. Yet, famed and titled, 
high-flown Government experts, with big pay and pomp, had 
officially reported, after expensive examination, that this whole 
Columbia river basin was Avorthless for agriculture. 

When I came here, about all the land that had been taken 
up in the Walla Walla country was a tract adjacent to and east 
of Walla Walla ; that which bordered on the streams, where it 
was fertile and otherwise suitable, and tlie hollows and level 



128 Building a Home. 



spots containing springs of water and situated on the road 
from Wallula to Lewiston. 

There were but two villages — Walla Walla and Waitsburgh 
- and but four Post Offices in all the region of Washington, 
that lies south of the Columbia and Snake rivers, now compris- 
ing four quite populous counties, but then all belonging to 
Walla Walla county alone. So there was yet plenty of vacant 
land to choose from. 

But the fruitful neighboring mines were quite worked out, 
and valleys near them had been settled and put in cultivation 
to supply their wants; so these markets and sources of money 
supply were mostly gone ; river freights were so high, that no 
produce could be shipped down to the sea ; the great Columbia 
and Snake river basin was without a market, and times were 
getting hard when I settled in the country. 

This Columbia and Snake river basin is quite barred in 
from the sea by the Cascade mountains. But the Columbia 
river gorges through it, making a good natural outlet and inlet 
to and from the sea, which could have been made available and 
almost free to the people at a comparative slight expense, 
by Washington or Oregon, or both, in overcoming some rapids 
which obstruct navigation. 

The available ground by these rapids was soon acquired 
by a close company of secret brethren, who — by building 
eighteen miles of narrow-gauge railway — were allowed to hold 
the whole country between the Rocky and Cascade mountains 
by the throat, and levy a tribute of untold millions on its 
people. They were thus taxed fifty to one hundred dollars per 
ton on all their imports, except what was hauled in over the 
mountains on wagons. And a like tribute on all exports to 
the full amount each kind of produce could pay, and continue 
to be produced. 

To own or control the transportation of a country, is to 
virtually own the whole business of it ; because such owners 
can thus reap all of the profits in the production of all of its 
produce. JVhat more could they (jet if they icere made Chunts and 
Dukes and sole 2)ropr{etors of the land and peojjle ? 

The tribute paid to these brethren by the United States 
Government alone, for the passage through their custom house 



The "France Settlement." 129 

gate, of military supplies, etc., would have more than built 
these eighteen miles of narrow-gauge railroad, worked a great 
saving to the Government, and afforded to the inhabitants of the 
country the utility of about 1000 miles of navigable rivers; 
which would be better than the same number of miles of rail- 
road built and given to the people. 

And the money overpaid to this charitable (?) ring in but 
a few (of the many) years by the people, would have thus 
opened these rivers, and besides have grid-ironed the country 
with narrow-gauge railroads to them. 

But the people, not being advanced beyond the claptrap- 
catchwords of " Democrat " and "Republican" (both meaning 
the gang), allowed brethren in the ring to hold office to the 
extent that nothing was ever accomplished against its interests 
and for the people's general welfare. 

Finally (1876) to hold out false hopes to the people — so 
they would not rebel and would continue to vote for the 
brethren, and to further fill their pockets — the general Govern- 
ment was caused to commence a $5,000,000 or $6,000,000 lock- 
canal around the obstructions, which has been used as a blind 
for big appropriations by Congress to enrich the gang, — there 
being comparatively little work done to open the river. 

There has never been an editor in all this upper country, 
who dared to give the true secret inwardness of this nefarious 
job of clutching by the throat and choking off from the people, 
for one or two generations, a thousand miles of navigable 
rivers that drain a fertile grain and mineral producing country, 
that in its natural resources is only surpassed by that drained 
by the Mississippi and its tributaries. And when the Govern- 
ment frequently spent as much money as was needed to utilize 
all this on single wagon roads and trails that were of little use. 
And the Washington and Oregon Legislatures (of brethren) 
squandered away as much at single sessions. 

When the markets of the mines failed to be equal to the 
supply, and the natural channel of trade to the sea and the 
world being still in the hands and power of a foreign — " mogul 
king" — secret government, that had its custom house in the 
only pass of the country, and was stabbing our Government 
into submission, the settlers had to do as the Indians had done 
9 



130 Building a Home. 



before — go into stock raising. This demand for stock cattle 
kept their price up, until the time I came here, (1870) when, 
there being a surplus, they gradually fell to half or one-third 
of the former price. A man bought a lot of yearlings at that 
time at twenty dollars a head, and sold them three or four 
years later for the same price — their growth just equalled their 
decline. 

The country was on this downward turn when I settled in 
it. Though the people were hopeful that they would dislodge 
the mystic pirates on the river ; that the N. P. railroad, or some 
other would be speedily built to Puget Sound, and the people 
be permitted to prosper. " Where every prospect pleases and 
only man is vile." 

The land claim I had located, was a mostly level and fer- 
tile one-quarter section of prairie, with a good spring and 
building site by it, and it was adjacent to the Walla Walla and 
Lewiston road noted before. But it was fourteen miles from 
timber and wood ; on which account my means were scant to do 
the necessary fencing, building, breaking, etc., to afford a living 
without working for others at least fourteen miles away; as 
nothing could be raised on the place for a year or two, and 
perhaps no profit the third or fourth. 

There are many expenses to meet all the time in making a 
home, though no help be employed, and accidents will occur. 
One little one is enough to break a settler all up, if it throws 
him into the hands and power of a lawyer or doctor. It being 
secretly fixed with the courts of justice (?), that either can get 
or spoil all that the victim has, though known to be guilty of 
inhuman deceit and malpractice. Thus do so many blacklegs 
thrive and homebuilders fail. And the necessary outfit of 
team, wagon, harness, plow, harrow, feed, seed, tools, grub, etc., 
to work with, costs quite a sum. 

Of course, one expects to get along for years with the kind 
of a house, furniture, out-buildings, etc., that he can build him- 
self, by perhaps exchanging work with his neighbor, if he has 
any, wherein one cannot work to advantage alone. Nor can he 
spend much time in them either, as he has so much other work, 
such as breaking, fencing, hauling, etc., etc., that must be 




(131) 



132 Building a Home. 



pushed ahead, or he will be overtaken by the hounds, and 
never make a living on the place. 

The situation must be looked in the face, and fully com^ 
prehended without blinking, and any regard for fashion or 
appearance to others spurned. 

My first team was of wild, half-breed Indian horses ; would 
have to catch them with a lasso, and they would snort, buck 
and kick to a wagon. And such a wagon ! It was like those 
scattered about to adorn (?) the lawn of a blacksmith shop. 
But I built 3000 rails for it all the same ; not on account of its 
beauty, but to put off the greater expense of two hundred 
dollars for a new one,— the secret charitable (?) pirates at the 
river charging a tariff of fifty or seventy-five dollars on a 
wagon ; and so a plow cost thirty or forty dollars ; and on hard 
wood, so that an axle tree, tongue, etc., cost ten or fifteen dollars 
each. A man paid oighty-five dollars to have a common farm 
wagon repaired. 

Remember going to a fourth of July celebration and on 
' other business, and when I went to hitch up, found the double 
and whiffle trees had been used and left at a distance, when 
with an ax, piece of a rail and picket rope, I made another set 
in a very few minutes for the occasion. Such was the outfit we 
went about with to keep ahead of the hounds, when not on 
horseback, in building a home and competency, and it took two 
packs of ravenous, blood-thirsty bloodhounds, and the prosti- 
tution of the Government, to hound, intrigue, stab_and ring us 
down. 

We would jest and ridicule with those so disposed at our 
outfit, or anything of the kind, and hold it to be a new fashion, 
soon to be imitated by all ; which happened to be about so, 
when, having cut the bush of my horses' tails square off for an 
attractive mark I had never seen or heard of, that I would 
more surely hear of them when they strayed away ; for after- 
wards this mark became the fashion of the world, and men 
adopted it for its beauty, who had ridiculed it to me as ugly 
and detestible. 

Not having means enough to go ahead to advantage on a 
claim so distant from timber and wood, and hearing of a fertile 
prairie and timber country at the head of the Alpowa, about 



The "France Settlement." 133 

twenty-five miles away, where " there were natural meadows of 
clover," and situated nearer Snake river (the prospective 
market) and Lewiston (the best present market), and through 
which were Indian trails and a shorter route for a through-road 
from Walla Walla to Lewiston and beyond, I went to see 
about it. 

Passing over an extensive stretch of unsettled, rich, up- 
land prairie, bordering on Padet creek to the west and Tu-Can- 
yon to the east - striking the Indian trails — then going down 
into the big, deep Canyon, crossing its wooded bottom and 
stream up towards the mountain ; then up and over the brakes 
on the trails ; over another stretch of high in altitude, but pro- 
mising prairie, reaching south to the mountain, and east and 
north to the breaks of the Pataha (Pa-tah-ha prairie). Settle- 
ment on both of these up-land sections had lately been com- 
menced, and two or three houses built on each. 

You see now, that the " sections " and settlements are 
separated by canyons and gorges, and the rough, rocky breaks 
bordering thereon. 

Following the Nez-Perce trails (as did Lewis and Clarke 
the same in 1804) down and across the Pataha gorge and creek, 
where it forks ; then on a ridge, between the Pataha and breaks 
of the head of the Alpowa, for four miles, and here lay the spot 
I was looking for. 

It is likewise high in altitude, but is interspersed with 
belts and groves of timber — of pine, intermingled with fir, 
tamerack and cottonwood, (giving this tract of country a pleas- 
ing, park-like appearance, in striking contrast with the treeless 
expanse on three sides, as far as the eye can reach — a view of 
fifty miles), with prairies intervening, that are unlike in ex- 
tent, evenness and fertility ; they being partly arable, and partly 
pasture lands. 

Of course, there were no roads across the gulches ; it was 
as scantily watered as other sections ; the clover meadows were 
a delusion ; no post-office, school-house, blacksmith shop, 
sawmill, grist-mill, or store nearer than twenty-four to thirty 
miles by trail, and forty to fifty by wagon road. And there 
was nothing of the kind this side of the big Tu-Cauyon or Snake 



134 Building a Home. 



river — with its six dollars ferriage to Lewiston. And there 
was no grist-mill at Lewiston. 

" Alpowai " is Indian for " Spring Creek." It empties into 
Snake river. Two missionaries— Dr. Whitman and Spaulding 
— stopped a short time at the mouth of this stream on their 
arrival from the States to this coast, in 1837, when they planted 
some apple seeds here for the Indians. From these seeds have 
grown some very large, fruitful and famed trees — living monu- 
ments of good men, and the oldest mark of civilization in the 
Walla Walla country, if not in the North-west. Twenty-five or 
thirty Nez-Perce Indians still (1889) live, farm and raise stock 
on the lower creek. But the " Old Indian Orchard " is not 
theirs anymore. They long ago renounced their tribal relations 
and are good citizens. 

At one time they loaned some horses to volunteers, to fight 
hostile Indians, for which they never got any pay or even the 
animals back. And when Colonel Steptoe and his force got 
whipped by hostiles beyond the river — in 1858 - old Timothy 
led them out of a death trap, and, with the other creek Indians, 
ferried them across the river in the night — thus saving the 
lives of over a hundred men, and for which the cowardiy-ingrate 
Steptoe never even said " thank you." 

Timothy's wife died recently (1889), aged ninety-five years; 
she remembered Lewis and Clark quite well, and how v^^ell they 
were entertained by her people. The oldest Nez-Perces revere 
the memory of Lewis and Clark, as the first white men they 
ever saw (1804). 

At the time of this land hunting trip (1871), when I located 
my place, there were five or six white men living on the Asotin 
creek, twelve to twenty miles to the south-east, — only one of 
whom had a wagon — but there was not a white woman in what 
is now Asotin county. Jerry McGuire, Noble Henry and Wm. 
Hopwood were the first settlers, I believe. Joseph Harris and 
Dan Faver lived on the Alpowai creek, Dudley Strain on the 
Alpowa-ridge-prairie (which lies between the Alpowa and Pa- 
taha). The latter was soon joined by Mr. Harris, who had a 
band of cattle to help them out. They and their families 
(eight miles away) were our nearest permanent neighbors for 



The "France Settlement." 135 

several years, and, happily, they were good and useful ones in 
times of need. 

The foregoing, with the fifteen ol* twenty men living on the 
Pataha creek and prairie to the north-west, constituted the po- 
pulation of the region between Tu-Canyon, Snake river and the 
Oregon line — now forming two quite populous counties. 

There was, indeed, a branch Indian trail route— up the Pa- 
det creek through this park-like tract (at the head of the Alpo- 
wai) - to Lewiston and the Asotin country, and no practical 
route across the Alpowa between this and the other one, (that 
I travelled sixty miles on when I came to the country and 
stopped in the " Upper Tou-chet " section), and to the south 
are the Blue mountains. But to make a wagon road across 
Tu-Canyon and the Pataha required a great deal of work, which 
could not be done until the country along the route was some- 
what settled up. And there was road work to do in crossing 
the wooded gulches here. 

In one of these gulches, where the trail crossed it, there 
flowed, for a quarter of a mile or more, the principal spring, 
or springs of water for several miles around, and fertile prairie 
land lay more adjacent to this spring, than to any other, that 
would afford water for so large a band of stock and for other 
business. 

Here was " water, wood and grass," with a good sheltered 
building place, joined to land ready for the plow ; which is 
joined by enough more laud that is destitute of water, so as not 
to be valuable to others, on which I could lay my other land 
rights, or buy, so as to have enough for a spacious home and 
business, to justify the pioneering and toil necessary to under- 
go in the building of a home alone in a wilderness. 

The Government justly gave to the pioneers of Oregon and 
Western Washington claims of 640 acres of rich bottom and 
prairie lands, bordering on rivers flowing unfettered to the sea; 
and it was death to a jumper. Patents to 8000 such "donation 
claims '' were issued. Yet, when I had more surely earned, and 
obtained b}- subsequent and more exacting laws, a less tract of 
land in a back wilderness, bottled up and strangled from the 
sea by the gang, the grasping, black-leg, midnight, blood-suck- 
ing hounds held it to be death-deserving, to hold and enjoy it. 



136 Building a Home. 



This I will prove in one place and another so plain and posi- 
tively, that none but a contemptible, villainous thief will dis- 
pute it. 

After looking around, I laid the customary " foundation," 
(four poles in a square) by the big spring of my hopeful desire, 
and posted a notice that I hereby claimed it, with a quarter 
section of land about it, October, 1871. 

This land being then unsurveyed, it could not be designated 
and filed on at the Land office, which was at Walla Walla. Nor 
could one tell, within forty rods, where his lines would be, till 
it was surveyed. As the claim I had located before was also 
on unsurveyed land, I therefore had not used, or lost any land- 
right in locating and disposing of it. So I had the pre-emption 
and homestead rights to use here, and the timber culture and 
desert land rights left to use elsewhere, if I so desired. 

There were a few other claims taken in this locality about 
this time by others, and more the following summer, but they 
were all abandoned in a year or two, after more or less work. 
For this locality was so far away from supplies, that had to be 
hauled by such a round-about way, or packed in by the Indian 
trail, and there being no one anywhere near, who was able to 
give employment to those short of means, necessary to meet 
expenses and go ahead with their improvements ; with every- 
thing to buy at big prices, and nothing to sell, it was a hard 
struggle to get along. 

There was a surplus produced on the Pataha creek, along 
the road ; but oats, barley and potatoes were two or three cents 
a pound ; hogs, eight cents gross, and wheat, one dollar a 
bushel. And this in the face of a limited and declining 
market. Prices got less towards Walla Walla— which was the 
Egypt of the new settlements - and greater towards the mines 
of Idaho and British Columbia. 

A future market depended on a river or rail outlet to the 
sea, and on a numerous immigration, that must consume before 
they could produce. 

The prices of merchandise were between that of a settled 
farming country and a mining camp. My store bills for seven 
years, after we were married, run from $150 to $350 a year. 

However, thinking that what by our ability, industry and 



The "France Settlement." 137 

economy we honestly earned, we could hold and enjoy in 
peace, we concluded to go to work and build a good and spacious 
home here, and we went at it full of hope and ambition, to 
succeed in the face of both ridicule and earnest advice. 

One who did not toil or spin, yet gathered in other people's 
barns and things, impressed me with other and easier ways to 
get a competency, than such a hard and homely way. "There 
are other ways for you to get along, better than by work — 
whatever you do, let such work be the very last tiling to think 
of doing," he said. And he warned me of the tangled meshes 
of perplexity, and the treacherous, deadly mire of grim con- 
spiracy and treason, that is masked and planted in the way, to 
stab, bleed, ravage and murder the homebuilder; examples of 
which will be given in other chapters. 

True, I had some business ability and experience in the 
real and living world, and by linking in with the gang that 
prostitutes the courts, could have acquired larger tracts of 
land and ready made homes without any toil, as so many 
charitable brethren do. There were others with ridicule or 
advice, who had not ability enough to make a living for them- 
selves. 

But no one questioned our riglit to build, hold and enjoy 
a home here if we could ; and certainly no one then envied the 
prospect or place. Some declared they " would not settle in that 
neck of woods for a deed to a township of land." But, having 
no responsible guardian, I went ahead and laid in a supply of 
necessary implements, tools, etc. ; grain for feed and seed ; a 
few hundred feet ol lumber; a year's supply of grub, clothing, 
etc. ; settled up my accounts ; gathered up my stock — in which 
our start thus far mostly consisted ; parted from what little 
civilization there was, and went to work on the place. 

Our house was a log cabin, neither spacious nor elegant, 
but being the best we had ever owned, it seemed to us to be 
both spacious and elegant. And the furniture would have sold 
for not more than $2.50 in a town. 

But, " the house and home of every one should be to him 
as his castle and fortress, as well for his defense against injury 
and violence, as for his repose. " 



138 Building a Home. 



" The true test of liberty is in the practical enjoyment of 
protection in the right. 

Where the same laws extend to all the citizens of differ- 
ent denominations ; where the poorest claims obtain redi'ess 
against the strongest ; where his person and property is secure 
from every insult within the limits assigned to him by the 
known laws of his country." 

Thus we started out on the rugged road — that not one in 
fifty travels over successfully — without pomp or assistance, but 
full of love and hope, agreeing in all things, truly in earnest to 
succeed, and asking no favors of men. 

Nor were we at all dismayed by any such stumbling blocks 
as the first, cast in our way at the critical outset — the worse 
than stealing of a few hundred paltry dollars in property, that 
was an absolute gift and heritage to a child from her grand- 
mother, greatly enlarged by her own skillful endeavors. 

In travelling in the West, as in moving, etc., one carries 
picket-ropes, grain, grub and blankets and camp out, because 
money can be more easily saved in this way, than made by 
working ; and, except an occasional ranch on a main road for 
such accommodation, houses of any kind are not often available, 
even in a storm. But with a good outfit and agreeable com- 
pany, camping out can be made enjoyable. 

The plows in the west are of steel, and must be frequently 
sharpened by a blacksmith. The nearest one for me during 
the first season was twenty-five miles away. He used bark, 
not having time to burn coal ; he was a skillful mechanic, and 
Sam Miller was a good man. After this there was a black- 
smith but eight miles away. When my plow got dull, would 
hitch on two more horses— making five or six — to stave off 
such trips. 

But the hauling of supplies from the nearest ' Egypt,' 
over long and often bridgeless and otherwise almost impassable 
roads, to a new settlement, is a great drawback. And when 
this is prolonged by failure of crops, by insect or other pests, 
it is so costly and discouraging, that many fall back. 

The claims about us that had been abandoned were soon 
relocated by other men, who added somewhat to the improve- 
ments on the same. But in the following spring these settlers 







(t39i 



140 Building a Home. 



took spells of gazing intently at the ground. An old prospector 
— passing through on the trail for a season's prospect in Idaho, 
with his pack mule following like a dog— inquired of one of 
these gazing homebuilders, " have you struck a color, pard ? " 

But he gets no reply or notice ; and no wonder, the ground 
is indeed "lousy." 

The homebuilder from Kansas — as he gazes at, kicks and 
stamps the fertile soil — is heard to mutter " Grasshoppers, by 
G-d!'' 

His past experience loomed before him like a hideous 
dream. Heretofore he could mortgage his home for a little of 
something that was portable, and skip to the trackless West. 
But there was nobody to invest anything in such a prospect, as 
was here, and the trackless West was about run down. 

A company of Nez-Perce Indians rode carelessly and 
happily by on the trail ; they were well-mounted, also well fed 
and clothed, and had as good a home as. the homebuilder. 
They were going to some camas or kowsh ground, where a sort 
of wild potatoe grows in abundance and variety, and where 
fresh meat could be had for the killing. In a month they 
would take a fishing excursion, and it was all a pic-nic. 

As they pass along, the Indians, perhaps, discuss the white 
man's boasted civilization, and point out examples to their 
children. Be this as it may, the Kansas and Washington 
homebuilder looks up at them and wonders why he never had 
the common sense of an Indian. 

The hoppers turned out to be big, black crickets, though as 
destructive as grasshoppers, and often more so, many men 
wasting a great deal of time in ditching and otherwise fighting 
against them. This was in 1873. 

That spring I had twenty acres into grain — on land I had 
broke the spring before— and a big garden. My first crop. 

Had also a good start of expensive stock-hogs ; 8000 rails 
into fence ; and had set out an orchard of about 200 trees ; and 
had done a good deal of road work. 

I commenced to ditch against the crickets, but finding it 
useless, gave up my whole crop to them without a whimper. 
Some people haven't sense enough to know when they are 
whipped. They overcrept the land more or less, for fifty miles 



The "France Settlement." 141 

around, taking the gardens, except peas and potatoes, and the 
small crops of the new settlers. The large fields of grain of 
the old settlers, being more than a supply for them, were only 
partially destroyed. 

While I went straight to breaking twenty acres more 
prairie for a bigger crop next year. I was the only one in this 
section that did so ; and in a few months was the only man 
living on his claim, in the now known as the " France Settle- 
ment." And nobody yet envied me my possession. 

The crickets left us potatoes and peas, that they did not 
like, and enough grain to winter the thirty-five head of hogs, 
that promised to give us a lift the following year. The pest 
was an all summer's feast to them. 

I cradled over all of the twenty acres, and hauled and 
stacked the grain alone. The same summer and fall this 
section of country, 6x12 miles — two townships— was sur- 
veyed, as near as essential, into forty acre-square tracts. 

So now I could lay my place definitely by the lines, and file 
my claim to it at the land office, after some months, when the 
office got ready for it. 

A portion of my field turned out to be on a "School 
section," (there being two such in each township) but having 
settled before the survey, could therefore hold my claim as it 
was, except that I must draw in or push out to the survey 
lines. Could take four forty-acre tracts, but they must be con- 
nected and butt square against each other. Could do this and 
form the claim either in a half mile square ; a mile long and 
one-quarter wide ; in the shape of a T, L, or Z : whichever 
would take in the most desirable land. 

However, as there was a law — that was being generally 
availed of in the old settlements — for leasing such school 
sections, in whole or in part, at a nominal sum ; and as this 
tract was entirely destitute of water, so that it would be of 
little comparative value to others, I did not file on any of it, 
thinking that hereafter I could lease, and afterwards buy — if it 



142 Building a Home. 



was sold — such portion as I might need in mj business, and 
was able to pay for according to present and future laws. I 
could get a few acres of land in the garden of California, on a 
clam beach on Puget Sound, or in the Sandwich Islands — 
enough for a bare living. But, of course, I wanted land 
enough for a desirable home and a profitable business and for 
ni}^ children. "What else was I here for ? What other induce- 
ment was there to pioneer in a back wilderness while it would 
produce nothing but big, black, hungry crickets — a hundred 
bushels to the acre ! Nobody wanted to murder me then for 
my possessions ! Even the Indians looked on me with com- 
passion as I struggled along, and they never did us any harm, 
with all their opportunities to do so. 

While I was thus earning a competency, members of the 
charitable (?) gangs were conspiring to steal school and other 
lands by the section and township, as will hereafter appear. 
And that they were held up for admiration by high officials 
who conspired to murder me by inches in cold blood ! 

Not finding it profitable to raise crickets and grain at the 
same time, I thought I would try to make something out of 
the famous bunch grass range. So that summer (1873) I got a 
band of over 100 stock cattle to keep on shares for half the in- 
crease. But learned by the following spring that the range 
for cattle was greatly over-rated, except for those having secret 
influence at court, so they can make their losses good from 
other people's bands with impunity. I had provided feed on 
the range where the cattle were running, and fed those that 
were unable to rustle. Though it was a moderate winter, and 
there was grass in sight all the time, but few of them did well 
on the range. So I traded the business off for six good milch 
cows with calves, and having two, made eight cows, or sixteen 
head of my own. 

The man I traded with made nothing out of the band. 

Whenever a snow storm set in I straddled a horse and 
struck out over the range — five to fifteen miles away — to see to 
the cattle. 



The "France Settlement." 143 

It is a pitiful sight one sees in riding over these western 
stock ranges in winter. Cattle gather in on streams and 
ravines for shelter and water, where they will stay and starve 
for feed rather than strike out and climb for the bare wind- 
ward side of the hills, or when they are on the leeward side 
of a hill or gorge, where the sun strikes with good effect and 
keeps the grass pretty bare of snow, they will stay here and 
starve for water, and then go to the, perhaps frozen-up, creek, 
where, if the water happens to be open, they will drink to 
excess, and then stop in the brush and trees — if any there be — 
and starve for grass. If no water, they moan and die for a 
drink. The feed near watering places is always eaten off close 
in summer. It is here that cattle largely pine, are cast, and 
die ; here they battle the fates and each other like men ; half a 
dozen big, long-horned steers gore a single crippled, weakly 
animal down or fast in a drift of snow or wood, because it does 
not belong to their band or clan. I found a cow thus wedged 
into a clump of trees and hanging by the hips with her knees 
down the bank on the ice, and her calf bleating pitifully near 
by. One sees many calves bleating in despair, pining and 
dying by their cast, dying and dead mothers, while clans of 
wolves are barking and feasting on their quivering misery, like 
clans of human kine. Cattle gather in on the Columbia, Snake 
and other rivers, inflamed and crazed with burning thirst, 
crowd out on the ice for an opening in the stream, when the 
ice breaks and they are drowned— whole bands at a time. 

Early in the spring, before many owners know what the 
winter has left, cattlemen of the clan that rules th-e court, 
strike out and gather up about everything that can travel, 
drive them out of the country — often to British Columbia — and 
sell out, to do it again and again. But when one, who has 
been but a hired hand for these gentry, steals but a few head 
on his own account, he is branded as a " cattle thief," his prop- 
erty divided among the court gang, and he is sent to the peni- 
tentiary for five or ten years. 

The survey plats being received at the local land office, 
from Washington, I filed my Pre-emption claim and received 
the following receipts : 




(lU) 



The "France SEiTLEaiENT." 145 

I had from six to thirty-three months from date of settle- 
ment to pay $200 for this claim and get a patent for it, when I 
could take a homestead claim. 

It being uncertain as to the time I would need to do this, 
my settlement was dated only about a year before I filed. The 
word " Unoffered " means that the land was not for sale out- 
right, as it had been about Walla "Walla up to 1870. 

I had been working to get a county road laid out from 
near Dayton, up Padet creek, through this section to Lewis- 
ton. And with the assistance of Messrs. Stringer & TVhaley 
(then living on Tu-Canyon) it was viewed out, surveyed, mile 
posts set and granted — fifty-two and a half miles — October, 
1874. 

But there was yet much work to do to open it, which cost 
me — first and last — much time, labor, and other expense. And 
afterwards I likewise secured the cross roads that are in this 
section. 

The cricket pest was still (1874) in the land, and besides, it 
was a dry, hot season. 

I had sown 60 bushels of grain — mostly wheat — that I 
had hauled fifty miles ; did not make enough out of the forty 
acre crop to pay for the seed. 

The Mogul pirates, still having control of the rivers of the 
country, and the immigration being the wrong way, my ex- 
pensive hogs were only worth two and a half cents a pound. 
So the crickets were of no more use than the River Clan. 

Some of the clan about this time relieved the county 
treasury of about $20,000 in cash. Then an error (?) was 
"discovered" in the security bonds. All the officials were 
sworn brethren, so nobody was punished, and the people paid 
for the charity ! 

A man built a wooden and strap-iron railroad from Walla 
Walla to the Columbia river, thirty miles. He got $5 and up- 
wards per ton for freight, though much was hauled on wagons 
as before. But the river tariff was so high that it did not pay 
to ship grain anyway. There were not even any grain shipping 
facilities on Snake river in 1874. Up to this fall, with all my 
hard work and farming and expenses I had had nothing to sell 
10 



146 Building a Home. 



but some horses and cattle from my little herd, and was 
$200 in debt. But had managed to yet have a good start of 
horses, cattle, hogs, hens, etc., and had pushed my improve- 
ments way ahead : yet, nobody envied the place. 

All the places about us were now again either abandoned 
for good by the owners, or for an indefinite time, and we were 
alone in the settlement. 

Even our staid neighbors — Harris and Strain — were 
about to leave the " damned country." I was berated and my 
sanity questioned — more than usual, and in no uncertain sound 
— because I did not join in cursing the country and leave it 
when others left. But such rebukes of fortune— as natural 
pests or accidental injury — not being due to conspiracy, 
treachery, or breaches of trust, caused in me no bitter sorrow 
or any loss of sleep, and we were not unhappy. 

Moreover, I had quit prospecting for an undiscovered, 
ready-made fortune, had settled down to earn at least a liveli- 
hood ; did not expect a picnic and had not found any. 

And the other new settlements before noted could be 
bought entirely by the claim for much less than the costs of 
the improvements, and some of them were now deeded land. 

Many who had got in debt, and most all had that could, 
had to sell their places for what they could get to other 
home-seekers, who were able and willing to take their turn. 
Money was very scarce and hard to get. Old settlers left their 
families and went 200 or 300 miles away to work for money, to 
pay for their land and to meet other expenses. 

Those who had bands of cattle, horses or sheep, and were 
out of debt, could hold their own and more, with good manage- 
ment and no bad luck. 

I had made some money by working and hauling for 
others, etc., and bought a better wagon, harness, plow, etc. 
And now sold all of our cattle except two, also a horse, hogs, 
potatoes, chickens and butter ; paid up what I owed, bought 
seed for another year— still fifty miles away — and laid in a full 
year's supply of provisions, clothing, etc., and some cash in 
hand for another siege. Plowed ten acres in December, 
when it set in cold, for a very hard winter. And we made a 



The "France Settlement." 147 

visiting tour of six weeks as far as Walla Walla and beyond. 
Then I hauled and cut up my regular year's supply of wood for 
stove and fire-place - spring of 1875. 

The country between the Snake and Columbia rivers- — 
known as the "Palouse" and "Spokane" sections— through 
which the Northern Pacific railroad had been located, had 
been more or less settled up. But on account of the tariff 
extorted by the river pirates, and failure of the other charit- 
able clan to build the promised railroad, almost all of these 
settlers, except those well provided with stock, had starved out 
and were now leaving the country for Oregon, California, and 
the States. Immigrants came in and took their places. 

Others who held their own, or did even better — in spite of 
the adverse situation - were set upon and pillaged more di- 
rectly by brethren with influence at court, and their places also 
were taken by others. Some left the route of the railroad to 
settle nearer Snake or the Columbia river, thinking it would 
be opened first. But it is still fettered by the sworn clan. 

The cricket pest was now past, but the hard winter, to- 
gether with the bottled condition of the country and other 
afflictions, further discouraged settlers, and during this sum- 
mer of 1875, many also left this division. But others came 
in to take their places and continue the struggle on both sides 
of the river, until their successors should come. And a few of 
the claims that had been abandoned about us were re-located. 

I spent much valuable and often thankless time in riding 
about and otherwise assisting these migratory land hunters. 
My house and grain stacks were always open to them without 
charge, as well as to all travellers passing through on the 
trails. As my place was widely known and often the only 
convenient place to stop at, many availed themselves of it ; 
were frequently crowded in this way. 

Besides farming, in 1875, I worked with my four horse 
team in hauling for others, including freight from Walla Walla 
to the Lewiston stores. It was five years this fall that I had 
worked hard and put it mostly into this place. And having it 
improved enough for practical use, I wanted to prove up and 



148 Building a Home. 



get a patent for it, so as to add to it an adjoining quarter 
section below, that was vacant. 

I asked a man to lend me the necessary $200 at one and a 
half per cent, a month for the purpose. " Yes,'' lie said, " but 
I must have other security besides a mortgage on the place." 
Tet I had done $600 to $700 worth of fencing and breaking, 
and $200 or $300 of other work on it. 

It is about the usual thing with homebuilders to have to 
face a lawyer or doctor's bill of $250 or more — for a week's 
service of mal-practice, backed by the ring courts — at this 
stage of the struggle, or before, when it takes $5 worth of hard 
earned property to get one dollar in money. Pause and 
reflect. 

I had escaped this, though I had sacrificed $350 at one 
time, and $250 at another to thieves, rather than undertake to 
buy justice of the court gang. So was able to borrow $200 (of 
another money-lender) to prove up and deed the land, which I 
did and filed a homestead claim. 

Then, having built a log house, 16x22 feet, corral, sheds, 
hen-house, etc., on the best building place, at the lower spring 
in the spring gulch before noted, and just on this homestead 
claim, we moved there September, 1875. 

The 320 acres contain 160 acres of arable land, the rest 
being either timber, steep or rocky, but all good for pasture. 

What good rail timber was handy had mostly been cut 
and hauled many miles away, so I had to go as far as six or 
seven miles back in the mountain for my future supply. But 
I had good teams now and wagon, was practically free of 
debt, had means to employ help, was otherwise so much better 
fixed lo get along than at the outset, and there being no more 
insect pest, that we just loped right along and ahead of the 
country. 

Columbia County was formed out of Walla Walla County 
this fall. And as there was now about 200 settlers this side of 
Tu-Canyon, they started a town in it (" Marengo "), made an 
efi'ort to build and own a grist-mill, and vote the county seat to 
this place. They lacked the votes necessary to get the capital, 
but money and work was generally subscribed by these poor 




a«) 



150 Building a Home. 



half-housed, mortgaged settlers to build the costly mill as a 
joint stock concern. 

Here was a chance for some brethren having secret influ- 
ence at court, to get control and engage in a swindle. Of course 
they did, and did nothing but manage the business against the 
victims, and grasp for money. 

The mine was equal to what would be a moderate lawyer 
or doctor's fee for each outside investor. 

From the Press, Seven or Eight Years from the Beginning. 

" The Marengo mill difficulty has at last been arranged. The 
remaining indebtedness of the concern has been raised among the 
unfortunate ones who signed the notes, although it will nearly break 
up a number of our best farmers to pay the amount subscribed." 

Also. — "Mrs. W. S is very sick. It is doubtful if she will 

recover. She is destitute, all her means of sujDport having gone to 
furnish whiskey and other luxuries for some of the Marengo mill 
thieves." 

Some got very indignant at me for refusing to take any 
stock in, and for ridiculing this scheme. One of whom after- 
wards skipped across the British line and started a masonic 
newspaper with his plunder. 

After the hard winter of 1874-5, common stock cows fell 
to $10, and the remnants of bands left by the winter were sold 
very cheap. Even stock men were breaking up now and leav- 
ing the country in disgust. Horses, however, were more re- 
garded, so one was no longer laughed at in reply to an ojffer to 
trade them for cattle. 

I thought this the time to buy cattle, and in the following 
winter bought twelve good milch cows at $20 each, making 
15 in all besides their calves, and soon had a fine band of cattle. 

In 1876 I threshed 1,000 bushels of wheat and barley (and 
had lots of other produce) being the first grain I threshed with 
a machine. It was the first time I could get one, or a thresh- 
ing crew ; and now had to go eight miles to do so after em- 
ploying every settler and land hunter in my settlement. And 
had to take a ten horse power outfit that took three and a half 
days time and pay, all around, to do the one days work, and 
leave one-third of the grain in the straw. The ground yielded 
thirty to fifty bushels to the acre. 



The "France Settlement." 151 

And for the ensuing six or eight months A-No 1 wheat 
and barley would not sell for more than 25 cents a bushel any- 
where in the county, or in Walla Walla county either. 

" Never before have I heard so much talk about hard times. The 
general question now is, is your grain attached ? There having been 
several attachments in this part. Cannot the merchants avoid heaping 
costs [say S150 each] on the already overburdened farmer until he can 
market his Avheat '? " 

Later. — "It is asserted by some of the inhabitants that there is not 
money enough in the county to pay its territorial tax, and we noticed 
four deputy sheriffs rustling for county taxes. One of these rustlers, but 
a short time since, was loud in liis denuuciations against having the stock 
sacrificed to get tax money, but he struck a happy thought, so he wrote 
to the sheriff for a deputy ship and obtained the same. About the first 
man he struck shamed him off of his place. Property must be sold for 
taxes if buyers are to be fonnd, and if not, then the county will have to 
collapse. We were told that one of the county commissioners said it was 
impossible for him to pay his taxes." 

However, I was fixed to pay my harvest and other ex- 
penses without selling my grain for 25 cents a bushel, and 
found a market at Lewiston that winter for the wheat at 45 
and 50 cents a bushel, and barley at $1.25 per hundred pounds ; 
the latter delivered at Fort Lapwai, twelve miles beyond. 
Don't know what it cost the Government, which should buy direct 
from the producer. 

I induced the ferryman (Mr. Piercy) to cross my four-horse 
outfit over the river for $2 a round trip. I believe this was the 
first crop of grain ever ferried across Snake river. 

There was no one living on the road at the time from one 
and a half miles beyond my place to Lewiston, or between that 
place and Fort Lapwai. I had before made the first wagon 
tracks from my place to within five or six miles of Lewiston. 

During the summer and fall of 1876 there was quite a 
large immigration in this country, and the vacated claims about 
us were again taken and many new ones located. 

And settlement to farm was commenced in the "Dead- 
man," " Meadow Gulch" and " New York Gulch" sections, lying 
west of the lower Alpowa and south and east of Snake river, 
and north of the stage road and the Pataha creek. I believe 



152 Building a Home. 



the first grain raised in this section was in 1878, after which 
time it was mainly settled. 

Two miners on the way from the Idaho mines had perished 
from the cold, or been killed for their dust at the head of 
Deadman hollow and creek near the road — hence the name of 
" Deadman." The gulch and stream are about 25 miles long. 

And settlement to farm was commenced in the Asotin 
country to the south-east. As it was also on the bench or 
plateau lands about Lewiston, 1876. 

With this immigration and these settlements, a town-site 
("Columbia Centre ") was located four and a half miles west of 
my place, on this new road, at the forks of the Pataha, and a 
steam saw-mill, grist-mill, store and blacksmith shop set up. 
And the towns of Pomeroy and Pataha City on the creek lower 
down were started — each with a grist-mill, store and blacksmith 
shop, 1876-7. 

All of these places were between our place and Tu-Canyon, 
which up to this time had to be climbed over on the way to the 
mills, stores, graneries, etc., of " Egypt." 

A grist-mill was also built at Lewiston, 1876-7. Asotin 
City was laid out at the mouth of Asotin creek on Snake river, 
1878 ; is now the capital of Asotin county. 

Sometimes immigrants settle in family or little contracted 
sectarian groups, each grovelling close within, averse to each 
other, the people and the world — as in a strange and foreign 
land, so that a full and general neighborhood meeting and 
greeting of a Sunday is never seen. While others of a more 
travelled and expansive turn, yearn to encompass broader 
fields. The one as insects whose world is but a single leaf. 
The other as comprehensive man, whose visions see and com- 
prehend the whole tree and forest. 

Yet by the sting of an insect, man may die, and by their 
multitude forests be destroyed. 

In the spring of 1877 the settlers in this " France Settle- 
ment " had a schoolhouse meeting, at which we agreed on a 
location for the proposed school house ; subscribed the neces- 
sary lumber, other material and work. And afterwards met 
from day to day, and built the best school house except one, I 
believe, then in the county. 



CHAPTER XI. 

An Indian war. — Neighboring Indians go ou the war-path. — The reason. 
— Descriiation of their domain. — Their horses and cattle. — "A job on 
Uncle Sam." — How they plead for their country. — "Earth governed 
by the sun, " etc. — Whom they killed. — How they marched and fought. 
— Settlers either stampede or gather in fortresses. — Efiforts made by 
men to have other tribes break out. — For plunder. — What an Indian 
must do to become a citizen. — How Indian claims are jumped. — What 
the Indian was before the advent of the Whites. — Their government, 
pursuits, etc. — What fire-arms and whiskey did for them. — How they 
started fire, lived and died. Their religion. — How to improve the 
Indian. — "A cry of the soul " 

i HE summer of 1877 Chief Joseph and his band of Nez-Perce 
Indians, joined by White Bird and Looking Glass with their 
bands of the same, went on the warpath against Gen'l Howard 
and his army, assisted by Generals Gibbons and Miles with 
their troops. The Indians numbered less than three hundred 
men, besides their women and children. They were non-treaty 
Indians, and each band owned separate tracts of country. 
Their country had been bartered to the Government many 
years before by a chief, who was not, however, recognized as 
such by this portion of the tribe. They denounced the trans- 
action as fraudulent, and could never be induced to receive any 
portion of the stipulated annuities or pay. 

The Government had built a grist- and saw-mill, and 
established an agency, and fenced and broke for them patches 
of land. But they were not to be deluded into civilization, and 
be governed by ring agents in any such way. 

They could see nothing in the mode and vexation of living, 
as practiced by the ignoble poor and ignorant of the Whites, to 
cause in them any desire to become similarly situated. They 
believed white men and their agents to be vile, grasping, 
treacherous, tricky and mighty uncertain. And the chiefs de- 
clared, that their people could not be educated to successfully 
compete with them, and combat their whiskey and contagious 
and loathsome diseases. 

As it was, they were healthy, well to do in their way, happy 

(153) 



154 An Indian Wak. 



contented and free, and had leisure from toil. They could not 
see more for them in civilization. They could not expect to 
achieve for their race, that which a great majority of the white 
race were ever struggling and toiling for, but failed to possess 
and enjoy. 

Joseph's band consisted of eighty or hundred men, besides 
their women and children. I had seen him, and talked with 
many others of his band ; and was well acquainted with several 
of his tribe. One of whom had been to Washington, when they 
were bartering off their country, of which distinction he was 
very proud. It can easily be imagined, how the more simple 
of the Indians could be deluded, and the more vicious other- 
wise managed, by experts, employed but to succeed. 

I suppose the records at Washington show that every foot 
of land now, or ever, claimed by the Government, was honor- 
ably treated for and bought of the Indians. But, if the race 
was to-day strong, enlightened, and had a newspaper press, to 
work against diplomatic liars, they could, with any acknowl- 
edged standard of honor and law in one hand, and a rifle in the 
other, burst into flinders enough of such titles, to give each 
tribe a city and a good-sized bank account, — amid the plaudits 
of the whole world ; when, perhaps, they would take more 
kindly to civilization. 

A part of Joseph's coveted domain lay in my county, and, 
extending into Oregon, where it mainly consisted in the high, 
frosty Willowa valley, containing about enough arable land for 
each of his band a farm, less in extent than that allowed to 
citizens under the homestead, pre-emption and other acts. This 
section they used for a summer range for their herds of horses 
and cattle, just what it was best calculated for. The rest of 
their country was steep, rocky, wild and craggy ; consisting 
principally in a canyon, about 2500 feet deep, through which 
runs the rapid Grande Konde river, which empties into Snake 
river. Here is where they lived in the winter with their stock; 
this canyon affording a good winter range for them. There is 
no river bottom or arable land in it, except a patch here and 
there of a few acres, some of which the Indians fenced and cul- 
tivated. But it was all a good game country, and there was 
also good fishing. One could see bands of deer feeding a mile 



The Truth about Indians. 155 

away, but it might take half a day to ride to them, on account 
of some deep, steep, rocky ravine intervening. There were also 
mountain sheep, elk, bear and other game. 

I was through this portion of Joseph's domain, hunting 
out a route for a through road from opposite Lewiston to the 
Wil-low-a country for the county. Others with me, who alike 
indignant and impressed with the ruggedness of it, declared 
that " Joseph must be putting up a job on Uncle Sam, to get 
him to buy the waste, and move him and his people to a 
country more suitable even for Indians." But with its good 
winter and summer grazing, its good hunting and fishing 
grounds, its rapid, laughing waters, and it being an inheritance 
from their fathers for many generations, it therefore just suited 
Joseph and his band. 

Joseph portrayed and supplicated with much feeling, in 
exhortation to the grasping invaders, how his grand father 
Joseph had, on his death bed, exhorted and obligated his father 
Joseph with a solemn injunction, to '* keep, cling to, and hold 
with his people this their country," and how, in turn, his father 
had laid the same injunction on him. But they exhorted and 
supplicated in vain. 

These Indians excelled most others in ability, appearance, 
living, dress and wealth. And they were peacefully disposed 
towards the Whites. I never heard of them stealing anything 
from even those who were encroaching on their domain. But 
the time had come, when they must forsake their country, go 
on to the reservation, and live as the poor, ignoble and ignorant 
white man lives, or fight ! 

In pleading their cause, one of them said, that " the Eartli 
was governed by the sun," and taking a piece of earth in his 
fingers, crumbled it fine, letting it fall to the ground, saying, 
that " rather than be ruled by the treacherous, grasping Whites, 
he would become as that piece of earth;" — dust to dust. And 
he died, fighting for his liberty and country. When war had 
been declared against them, they first killed the men they could 
find who had taken action for their removal from their country, 
about six. 

When with the bulk of their horses and their families on 
the travel with them, they combatted, out-generalled and out- 



166 An Indian War. 



fought over 1000 soldiers, citizens and officials, who were en- 
gaged against them, in one way or another, all summtr. Old 
soldiers, who followed them all through the campaign to the 
surrender in Montana, say, that they were better trained and 
did fight and charge more bravely and desparately than our re- 
gular or irregular troops ; that their horses were trained to 
stand alone under fire, while they dismounted and charged the 
soldiers among the rocks and cliffs ; and that their systematic 
manoeuvering and horsemanship was unequalled anywhere. 
They would shoot under their horses' bellies, etc., while riding. 
An Indian of another tribe told me, that some of themselves 
had horses trained to drop down behind a bush, rock, fallen 
timber, or other obstruction, when under fire ; that he had a 
horse " that had more sense than himself." And these Indians 
never saw West Point. 

Joseph sternly opposed the committing of any outrages, 
usual in war, against persons or property, except as to those, 
who had or were actively engaged against them ; for which, it 
is said, the more vicious of them became rebellious. That this 
element had a captive woman with them, and, after some of 
their own women had been killed, they killed her in revenge, or 
that their squaws did it— the same, however, of whom white 
men frequently marry wives, and, 'tis said, they are good and 
true. That, after several of their own wives and children had 
been killed, Joseph saved, mounted on his horses, and sent 
away out of danger, women of his enemies, and for which some 
of his men called a counsel to kill him. 

At the outset it was unknown which way the Indians would 
go when attacked, to drive them to an equality with the ring- 
ridden Whites, or what depredations they would commit in re- 
venge. It was thought by many that they would raid through 
our and adjoining settlements ; a few soldiers were stationed at 
a pass back in the mountain, and for a time nearly everybody 
in the section about us, and to the south-east, either left this 
part of the country, or gathered into fortresses. Some were 
warned by Indians to leave. I was busy with my work all the time 
and did neither. I would sooner trust my home and family to Jo- 
seph and his tribe, than to many white men with more secret, self- 
ish and hellish tribal relations; as they are more vile, cruel and 







(157, 



158 An Indian War. 



treacherous than the worst of savages, as will be made manifest 
to the most careless understanding. 

On account of their superior generalship and training, had 
the different Indian tribes of this upper country been so mind- 
ed, they could have laid waste all the settlements in the 
country, as Sheridan did the Shenandoah valley. And secret 
ring-men tried to instigate and goad them into a general out- 
break, so as to feast in the blood and destruction. 

While a peaceable chief (Moses) with good record and 
principle, was continually riding from one of his bands to an- 
other, to pacify, prevent and hold them from rising to join 
Joseph, White Bird and Looking Glass in their revenge, jobs 
were put up on him, and he was thrown into prison by the 
gang, backed by a servile press ; just as they do with other 
outsiders who are in their way, or to grasp their money. 

It does not appear that either General Howard or the 
Secretary of the Interior were in with this job ; as to which I 
herewith give an extract from the official report of the Secretary 
of the Interior at Washington, dated 1879. 

" There never was any trustworthy information in possession of this 
department, to justify any suspicion as to the conduct or intentious of this 
Indian chief (Moses), on the contrary, he is known to have rendered good 
service during the Bannock trouble, in maintaining peace and good order 
among the Indians under his influence. But the efibrts to take his life, 
or at least his liberty, or drive him into hostilities, appeared to be so per- 
sistent, that it required the most watchful and active interposition on the 
part of the Government to prevent a conflict. On several occasions I 
requested the Governor and General Howard to personally interfere and 
protect Moses." 

And it is further declared that by Moses' efforts a general 
Indian war was prevented. 

In Indian campaigns the transportation and supply 
accounts are immense, (though the common soldier often fares 
no better than the Indian warrior without any paid quarter- 
masters' department), and the plunder therein is a big object 
to secret brethren. 

" General Crook was asked if the present campaign would put 
an end to Indian outbreaks in Arizona. He answered with a 
smUe: 'I know and you know that a great many people make 



The Truth about Indi-\ns. 159 

money out of Indian troubles. These same people exercise con- 
siderable influence in control of the Indians.' " 

The Nez-Perce Indians were rich in horses and cattle, and 
in land to sustain and enlarge them. Some of them owned one 
or two thousand horses. And among them were race horses, 
equal to those bred by their white neighbors, and which they 
would frequently beat on a track for coin. 

Several companies of volunteers went to assist General 
Howard and Co. in fighting these Indians, and they captured a 
good many horses and cattle. Every few days during the cam- 
paign some of them would pass my place with a band of Indian 
horses, and all covered with glory and dust. These bands 
numbered from a dozen to 150 head. Three men stayed at my 
place one night with 125 of Joseph's cattle. They thought the 
Indians had more stock and land than they needed. And men 
who had never earned a dollar by work in their lives, and would 
steal and ravage before they ever would work, exclaimed, that 
"the Indians should he made to ivork ! " 

To know and comprehend human character of each sort 
correctly, it must be realized that there are widely different 
elements and dispositions in each race, tribe and even family. 
That there are but individuals, or a comparatively small 
element of the Indians, that will flay alive a captive because he 
belongs to a hostile, grasping race. And we should show them 
that there are but indi\aduals, or a small element of Whites, 
who glory in killing their women of any tribe, and in dashing 
out the brains of their children on the rocks, or who kill Indians 
whenever they find them alone and defenseless, just because 
some other of their race had, perhaps, committed a similar out- 
rage on some one dear to them long before. 

And let us look to those of virtuous pretentions, in high 
station, who directly and indirectly practice, with impunity, 
heartless cruelties and traitorous prostitutions — deeds of dark- 
ness that would make a savage blush ! 

" To become a citizen, the Indian must make affidavit before 
some qualified person, that he has severed his tribal relations. He 
must also bring two witnesses, to testify that he has severed such 
relations." 



160 An Indian War. 



Why is it that they are denounced, plundered and killed 
for clinging to their tribal relations and government, and re- 
quired to renounce that first, before they can be citizens with 
us in our Government ; while, at the same time, we suffer sivorn 
subjects of more secret and selfish tribal governments to pass 
as full-fledged citizens, and to hold oflB.ee and prostitute our 
Government, to rob us and the Indian with impunity ? 

" Sitting Bull is evidently a very observant Indian. He de- 
clares, that, if affairs continue on in the same groove, the Indians 
will not have ground enough left, upon which to stretch their 
tepees and rest their limbs, and that they will have to pay taxes 
and be as poor and ragged as pale -faces." 

As follows. — " A delegation of Indians came up, on their way 
to Fort Walla Walla, for a conference with the commanding 
officer, concerning the jumping of their land The Indian whose 
land has been confiscated is very intelligent. It seems that he 
had a small place under cultivation, with fence, house and stable. 
The jumper has filed on the land, and now requests the dusky Sis- 
kiow to hiack clatawa, or he will blow off the top of his head. 

Siskiow remarks that he is not as young as he used to be, or 
he should not allow the jumper, or any other man, to scare him 
out of house and home. He has concluded to have a talk with the 
commanding officer and the land agent at WaUa Walla, and find 
out whether he has any rights a Boston man is bound to respect." 

" This place was the scene of the misunderstanding last spring 
between the Whites and Indians, which looked as if it might prove 
serious. It seems but little encouragement for Indians to try and 
adopt the habits of their ' civilized ' brothers, by locating and cul- 
tivating then* land, if they are liable to lose it any time their im- 
provements are worth the taking." 

While we are enjoying the fame, glory, plunder and victory 
over these poor, damned, friendless Indians, let us at least con- 
cede to them the skill and the bare, fruitless sentiment of 
patriotism and valor that is due them. 

" Slowly and sadly they climb the distant mountain and 
read their doom in the setting sun." 

Intelligent old Indians, of different tribes, tell me that they 
were very numerous in the north-west before the advent of the 



The Truth about Indl\ns. 161 

Whites. That they were healthy, vigorous, and endowed with 
fine constitutions, and were not on the decline. 

The jDrincipal trouble with them was that thej' gloried in 
war and plunder, one tribe with another, and battles in which 
1,000 or more Indians were killed, are related. The smaller 
tribes would often combiue to fight a stronger one, such as the 
Sioux, as do civilized nations. And their great war chiefs were 
glorified as those of the Whites are to-day. 

It does not appear, however, that they were quarrelsome 
or criminally disposed within the tribes, and peace and justice 
were maintained without prisons or taxes, or much trouble or 
pain. 

They cultivated no habit or taste that could not be easily 
supplied to all. They enjoyed and had leisure for the hunt, as 
much as an English lord. They appear to have been more 
happy, and have gotten as much good out of life as do the ring- 
ridden, toiling masses of the Whites. The introduction of fire- 
arms among them, first by the Hudson Bay Fur Company, in- 
augurated a more peaceful era among the Indians, as the more 
destructive war machines have done among the civilized 
nations. But the whiskey, diseases and vices of the Whites 
have proved far more fatal to them than their wars. Con- 
sumption, deadly fevers, diphtheria, small-pox, measles, scro- 
fula, and more loathsome diseases are said to have been un- 
knoicn to the Indian until they had known civilization. 

Nor did they have any medical colleges or dollar-a-mile 
doctors. A steam bath in their " sweat house " was a remedy 
for about all their illness. They had no taste for salt and used 
none ; nor tobacco, opium, etc. They started fires with punk 
and friction. The whirling of a hard stick set on to punk, by 
looping the stick in a bow string, will soon produce fire. 

The greater part of the country west of the Missouri river 
is more adapted to the raising of buffalo, deer, elk, goat, bear, 
rabbit, and other game, and horses, than for anything else. 
And before the advent of civilization — that slaughtered them 
ofi" for their pelts, and the sport (?) of hunting down, maiming, 
killing, and seeing God's beautiful creatures sufier, quiver, and 
die — there was a great abundance of such food supply. Deer 
was as easily caught as sheep are now, and destroyed the 
11 



162 An Indian War. 



crops of the first settlers on Puget Sound. This great natural 
food supply — together with the fish, clams, berries, roots, and 
seeds that made a rich flour, afforded food in great abundance, 
more healthy and better than that had by millions of the 
children of boasted, flaunted civilization, with all their endless 
toil, diseases, vexation, sorrow and vices. 

And by a little care and regulation this natural God-given 
food and clothing supply could have been increased to support 
a population — dressed in seal-skin and martin, instead of calico 
and dungaree — as dense as in the present toiling, vexatious and 
vicious way. 

It seems that even in Europe it has been found the best 
economy to raise game instead of grain. Grasshoppers, un- 
seasonable weather, fashion, the prosperity of others, had no 
terrors for the Indians, and they knew not suicide or insanity. 

Thus did the red man live — able to spurn common toil like 
a prince, enjojdng the sports of the chase like a nobleman, the 
glories of war like a Bonaparte, Hannibal, and Grant. And 
had leisure for study and that rest, that the "Whites can only 
hope and pray for in heaven. This thing, called civilization 
indeed ! has proved to be a humbug to every people in the 
history of the world that have tried it very long, so that they 
either called a halt, like the Chinese, or perished like the 
Indian under the ban. 

As to the religion of the Indian before the advent of the 
Whites, it appears to have been similar to that of the Chinese 
from whence the race is believed by themselves to have come 
(crossing Behring Strait, or by the Islands). It is a sort of 
Spiritualism — that all animals have immortal spirits. It is in 
accordance with the same that they had their favorite or 
attached horses, etc., killed at their death, believing that the 
attachment and association of these spirits —man and horse, 
etc. —before death would continue after death in some form if 
freed of the body by its death. 

They worshipped the sun, etc., as great sources or main- 
springs of life and goodness, as some Christian people do the 
" harvest moon." 

They say as to their belief in an intelligent supreme ruling 
power, a living God, " great spirit," " happy hunting ground," 



The Truth about Indians. 163 

or any comprelieDsive future existence, that this is all au in- 
vention of the Whites. 

Like so many of the Whites, the religious belief of 
most of the Indians is very vague, and they are ready to 
change it for anything else that will give them cash or in- 
creased happiness in hand. 

If the Indians are to be benefitted by the better element of 
civilization, they must be dealt with more honestly by the 
Government, and protected against the depravity of the worst 
elements, masonic agents, etc., or else be permitted to protect 
themselves against the lurking serpents. And the same can 
well be said as to the simplest and artless of the white race 
also. 

A CRY OF THE SCUL. 



" I have read in the lore of long ago 
How a symbol of our life below 
Is a boat with palsied men to row, 
And a blind man at the rudder ; 
Or a pensive, mild-eyed mo,*,her of kine 
Th;it roots and grubs in the ground like swine, 
With a serpent at the udder. 

O shaven priest, that pratest of souls, 
Knowest thou not that men are moles 

That blindly grope and burrow ? 
The field that is gray shall be green again. 
But whether with grass or whether with grain 
He knoweth who turns the furrow ! 

It is only a step from cradle to grave, 

And the step mv.st be taken by knight and knave» 

By stupid alike and clever ; 
For sleep is a death that lasts but a night. 
And death is a sleep when the lips are white, 

And open no more forever. 

O poet, be still, with thy maudlin verse ; 
For singing of love, when love is a curse, 

Neither mai's the thing nor mends it ; 
And sui'e as death and sleep are twins, 
So life in mystery begins, 
And another mystery ends it ! 



164 An Indian War. 



And lie who only sleejjs for a niglit, 

Tliongli never before were his dreams so bright, 

Shall surely aAvakeu wiih the light 

To another day of sorrow ; 
So better by far the sleep of the dead, 
For the sleeper that sleeps it need not dread, 
Though hard be the pillow beneath his head, 

Tbe doom of a sad to-morrow. 

Ah, life is a riddle that none can guess ; 
And wlleth^>r it curse, or Avhether it Ijless, 

Dei)ends on no endeavor ; 
For the spider of fate, with a thousand eyes. 
Sits weaving its Aveb for human flies ; 

And the flies buzz on forever ! 

And the wolf of hunger, gaunt and grim, 
Full often stops at the door of him 

Who was cradled in bliss and splendor. 
And the wolf of sin and the wolf of woe 
Lie in wait for souls that are white as snow, 

For the spider of fate is their sender. 

And the king, who lifted his hand to slay, 
Aud the priest whose blue lips tried to pray, 
And the beggar in rags, who begged his way, 

All beaten and brown with the weather ; 
And the poet, who sang his song so sweet 
That the maiden knelt and kissed his feet, 
While he wrapped her about with her winding sheet, 

They are all rank grass together. 

, And the greener the grass on graves, 'tis said, 
The surer its roots to be damj? and dead. 

For both have a common mother ; 
And death is a rest, and death is a sijell; 
And life is lieaveu, and life is hell, 

But each completes the other. 

Ah, true was the myth of long ago, 
That a symbol of our life below 
Is a boat with palsied men to row. 
And a blind man at the rudder ; 
For life is a pensive mother of kine, 
That roots and grubs in the ground like swine, 
With a serpent at the udder. " 



CHAPTER XII. 

Indians, conlinued. — Chief Joseph. — White Bird. — Looking Glass, and In- 
dians generally.— The Wliite Bird fight.— These Indians in early- 
days. — Their flocks, herds and fine farms. — The resnlt of tlie war to 
the Indians. — "Cold-blooded treachery. '"-How chief Joseph treated 
■white prisoners.— "The glory of the West."— Col. Steptoe's defeat. — 
"For God's sake, give me something to kill myself with." The others 
saved hy other Indians. — An ingrate.— Col. Wright's victory.— GOO 
horses butchered. — How Wright treated Indian prisoners. — "The 
Chief Moses outrage." — 370,000,000 squandered by the gang. 

Will resume as to the Nez-Perce, or Joseph, White Bird 
and Looking Glass outbreak, and Lidian affairs generallj^, by 
condensing from the press. 

The White Bird Fight, near Fort Lapwai, Idaho, 1877. 

*' When the Indians attacked CoL Perry with about fifty men, 
they expected to be repulsed, and then fall back about a mile 
where was their reserve force of about sixty, entrenched for the 
pui'pose of receiving the troops, as they pursued the advance 
skirmish on their retreat. But their advance never had to retreat, 
for Col. Perry and the troops fled in precipitancy almost at the 
fii'st fire, and never did stop until they had gone four miles up the 
canyon. The Indian reserve never came into the fight, except a 
few old squaws, who, on seeing the soldiers in flight, followed 
close up, to plunder the dead. They were frightened at the fu-st 
volley discharged in their direction, and Col. Perry was determined 
to save his own scalp by flight. So demoralized was he, that he 
said, he kept one charge in his revolver in order to shoot himself, 
in case the Indians were about to capture him. He had rode down 
one horse and took another, belonging to a soldier; and had not 
W. B. Bloomer, a citizen, notified him of his danger of annihila- 
tion, he would have rushed into Rocky canyon and been slaughter- 
ed. Bloomer called to him to stop, when PeiTy says to him, ''then 
you lead the way out of this." 

But Lieutenant Theller gathered six or eight soldiers around 
him, and stood off the Indians and fought them until every man 
of his squad, including himself, was shot down. And for eleven 
days Col. Perry's dead soldiers lay nu)rtifying in the hot sun on 
the field of battle, while the Colonel [a mason J and his fleeing 

(165) 



166 Indians, Continued. 



force were at Cottonwood in good quarters, and the Indians liad 
left and gone to Salmon river and across. The citizen volunteers 
bm'ied Perry's dead. 

Manuel lay concealed in the brush near by, and personally 
saw the Indians, when they made their breast works of rails, the 
number who w^ere there, and the mimber who sallied out to meet 
the soldiers; and he says that not more than fifty of the Indian 
warriors left the breast works, and that there were not at any time 
more than 200 Indians in the hostile party at the time of the 
White Bird fight, and from fifty to sixty of these were women and 
children. After the fight, when they had their revelry over the 
victory they had gained over the soldiers, Manuel was within a 
few yards of the i)arty, concealed in the brush, and could see and 
hear all that was done and said. He is willing to make oath that 
at that time not more than 200 men, women and children were in 
the hostile party. 

Such are some of the facts that [Mason] the pretended histo- 
rian should have embodied in his pretended history, instead of ex- 
cusing the commander [Mason], Avho held the key position on the 
hill, when the fighting commenced, and could have easily held it." 
— ^' Lnviaton Telln\" 

Why should the people support a horde of such loafers to 
command real citizens of the Government in time of war ? 

"Chief Joseph. — By his performances became entitled to be 
recognized as one of the remarkable men of the age. One more 
day's march would have placed him inside the British dominions. 
For four months he had eluded his pursuers, having travelled 
more than 1500 miles through the wildest, rockiest and most 
mountainous region in America. He had crossed ranges, leaped 
canyons, and swam mountain torrents; all this while carrying 
with him, on this remarkable flight, the women, children and 
property of his tribe. He had been pursued altogether by several 
armies, any one of which far outnumbered his force. He had 
fought five battles against an enemy, supplied with all the re- 
sources of modern warfare, and each time he had been practically 
victorious. Had he had the least suspicion of Miles' approach, it 
is evident that his fertile genius would have eluded his enemies 
once more, and have been able to laugh at all their toil." 

"A Black Page of History. — In the fine address delivered 
before the Oregon Pioneers' Association by Col. Geo. H. Curry, 



Indians, Continued. 1G7 



"we fiud the following : On the third day from seeing the signal 
smoke [while immigrating to Western Oregon in early days], we 
arrived at the rim of the Grande Koude valley. Looking down 
upon this, the most beautiful valley in Oregon, we could see large 
numbers of Indians riding over the plains. No choice was left 
us, friendly or warlike, we had to pass through that valley, and 
down the hill we started. Reaching the foot, we soofi learned that 
the Indians we liad seen were a large band of Cayuses and Xez- 
Perces, who, following a custom taught them by Dr. Whiteman, 
had come this far, to meet the immigrants, trade with them, and 
protect them from the Snake Indians. Here, for the first time in 
several months, we felt safe, and went to sleep without guard, 
leaving our hungry stock to feed at will among the abundant 
herbage of the Grande Eonde. 

The smoke which had caused so much apprehension was the 
Xez-Perces' signal of aid. It was the fiery banner of friendship 
and succor, sent aloft by these dusk}^ people to proclaim theii* 
presence and good will. 

The sad reflection, consequent uj)on reading this passage, is, 
that these friendly Indians, who protected the weary and famish- 
ing Oregon pioneers, should have subsequently been the object of 
the most outrageous, unjust and inhuman persecution that our 
Government ever inflicted upon the Indians. Generals Howard, 
Gibbons and Miles, who were obliged, under the orders of the 
Government, to execute Secretary Schurz's inhuman orders for 
the ejection of the Nez-Perc^s from their homes, unanimously 
testified, that these Indians had reached a comparatively high 
stage of civilization ; they had flocks and herds, had fine farms ; 
were a brave, manly, sj)irited race of men, and so humane, that 
they forebore to murder, scalp, or otherwise torture our wounded, 
that feU into their hands. 

In their retreat through our settlements they did not mun-ler 
or rob ; they paid for their supplies and only asked a peaceful 
passage in their flight. Gen. Gibbons describes Chief Joseph as a 
man of high intelligence, and of superior military talent, whose 
men were equal, man for man, to our soldiers, and who out-gene- 
ralled and out-fought us in every fight. [Why should not such In- 
dians be given commands in the army, over the masons, in times 
of war?] When Chief Joseph surrendered to General Miles on 
honorable terms, which stipulated that his people should not be 
removed to Indian territory. Secretary Schurz disgraced the 



168 Indians, Continued. 



/ 



Government by violating the terms of surrender, [but was the 
masonic President dead ?] and General Miles never ceased to pro- 
test against this outrage. But Schurz persisted in removing them 
to a district in Indian territory, where the tribe died of disease, 
like sheep with the foot rot. 

The only excuse for the Nez-Perce war was that greedy men 
wanted the splendid grazing and farming lands of the tribe. 
[There was plenty of just as good and better land that was vacant 
at that time ; it was more for the plunder of the Indians of their 
other property, and the Government, in the furnishing and trans- 
portation of supplies by the gang that had so much evil influence 
at court, and are sworn subjects of their secret mogul govern- 
ment that prostitutes ours.] So these Indians, who had pro- 
tected the Oregon pioneers, who had offered an asylum to settlers 
fleeing from the savages in the Indian war, who had laid aside the 
inhuman practices of scalping and torture of captives, [even while 
the Government hired and armed other Indians who did this 
against the Nez-Perc<^s], who were rising steadily in the scale of 
industrial and agricultural civilization ; these Indians were lashed 
and goaded into rebellion, and fought a heroic fight against our 
soldiers, who heartily sympathized with these brave men whom 
they were ordered by the cold-blooded [tools of the gang] to shoot 
down and evict from their homes. It is the blackest picture in 
the whole history of the dealings of the Government Avith the 
Indian [but it is not very far from a fair sample of the whole], 
and we have no doubt, that the Oregon pioneers who were aided 
in the Cayuse war by these Nez-Perces, agree with General 
Gibbons, who to this day pronounces the Nez-Perce war as a cruel 
outrage, contrived by [the gang] and executed by a secretary of 
the interior, who was as cold-blooded and treacherous as the 
meanest savage that ever wielded the tomahawk and the scalping 
knife." — Portland Oregonian. 

Yet he Avas a pretty good Christian compared to brethren 
who were appointed to high offices out here. 

"Arkansas City, Kan., March 26, 1885. — Information is 
received here that the remaining members of the Nez-Perce 
Indian tribe, with the noted Chief Joseph, are to be transferred 
from their present reservation in Indian territory, where they 
are dying by the score from broken hearts, to their old reserva- 
tion in Idaho. In 1877, when Joseph and his men went to war 



Indians, Continited. 169 



with the Whites, he conducted one of the'most wonderful marches 
and succession of fights in the annals of Indian warfare, and 
when, at last, he surrendered to General Miles at Bear Paw moun- 
tain, Montana, in the fall of 1877, he was over 900 miles from his 
reservation. 

Chief Joseph, at last, would only throw down his arms upon 
the promise that he and his tribe should be returned to their old reser- 
vation. 

And so weU were they intrenched behind stone fences and 
breastworks, that Miles' men could not dislodge them, and at one 
period of the fight, when General Miles asked his command if 
they could not drive them out by assault, they replied, ' Charge 
hell ! We are not Sioux ! ' it being generally known that the 
Sioux were the only Indians that would charge the Nez-Perces. 
The tribe are to be transferred to the land of their forefathers. 
Of the 600 men, women, and children, Avho surrendered, over 300 
have died of broken hearts, and the only flourishing spot within 
100 miles of their present reservation is their graveyard, where 
newly made graves are to be seen on all sides. Chief Joseph has 
cheered up his tribe by the words that some time the Great 
Father at Washington [with the permission of the gang] would 
keep his word and let them return to their own hunting grounds 
near the setting sun." 

"Chief Joseph, the Nez-Perce, who, with his tribe, 800 
strong, of the best fighters the United States troops ever met in 
field, canyon or ambuscade, broke out in June, 1877, and after a 
march of nearly 2,000 miles, were finally captured at Bear Paw 
mountain, near the British line, in November, the same year, are 
now on their way back to the home they love so well in Idaho, 
Of the 800 who left but 250 are left, and of these 119, with Chief 
Joseph, will be taken to the Colville reservation, and the re- 
mainder will be taken to Lapwai. With the single exception of 
Joseph himself, the Chiefs of the outbreak are all dead, juooking 
Glass was killed by General Miles' troops at Bear Paw, Rainbow 
we saw lying dead with a bullet through his brain and his face up- 
turned to the sky on the Big Hole battle-ground ; he was the first 
Indian killed as he was going out at daybreak to gather in his 
horses. Tool-hool-hool-suit was killed on the same field and his 
body dug up by Howard's Bannock scouts, scalped, and a general 
war dance and coiTobboree held over his carcass. Caps-caps, who 
was prominent in the Salmon river massacre [?] is also dead, 



170 Indians, Continued. 



having been killed in orte of the numerous engagements. On the 
surrender, General Miles gave his word to Joseph that he should 
be returned to his own country, but such has been the opposition 
of the white people [who had stolen tlieir property and had influ- 
ence at court] it has not until now [when their property is secured 
beyond their reach so they cannot " make trouble "] deemed ad- 
visable to allow them to return, and, hence, Joseph will be phiced 
on a reservation far remote from the scene of his depredations. 
Whenever he had the opportunity, he spared the lives of the 
prisoners who fell into his hands, and caused to be delivered, 
safely and unharmed, two ladies, who with their party were at 
the time in Yellowstone Park. Joseph interceded and sent them 
on their way rejoicing, when they had been condemned to death. 
[I wonder whether these ladies did anything for Joseph's justice 
when Jie was in distress.] 

He has paid dearly for his crimes [?] the vengeance of all 
should be glutted by this time.'' [Having got away with their 
homes and herds, and robbed tlie Government out of big piles of 
money ; yes, these gentlemen, who " lashed and goaded them 
into an outbreak " for plunder, might forgive them now, if they 
will forget it all and say nothing about it.] 

''At last, after waiting nearly eight j-ears, the remnant of 
the Nez-Perce tribe, which was transported to Indian territory, 
after the surrender of Chief Joseph, is to be brought back. Of 
over 500 persons that left, less than half remain, the others filling 
graves in the land of their exile. The stor}' of this exile is a 
pitiful one, and that they have amply atoned for their crime [?] as 
a tribe few will deny. Since their departure great changes have 
taken place in their old homes, and theii* return need cause no 
alarm, for it will be a broken-hearted, broken-spirited band, 
filled only with the desire to live at peace with their surroundings, 
and lay their bones in the soil their ancestors have claimed for 
generations past." March, 1885. 

" The Nez-Perces and Cayuses were, by all means, the great- 
est tribes west of the Rocky Mountains. Why, the}' used to 
roam as far east as the Missouri river on their hunting expedi- 
tions, and if they chanced to meet a war party of any tribe, they 
w^re ready and prepared to uphold by strength of arms the glory 
of the West. 

An officer who fought in the rebellion, told me that some of 
the fiercest and most valiant fighting he ever engaged in was with 



Indians, Continued. 171 



the Nez-Perces. They, he said, maintained a solid front in 
battle, and fired and nianoeuvered as if they had been drilled by a 
graduate of West Point." 

But they o«<^-manoeuvered and ichipped such graduates. 

"Story of Col. Steptof/s Defeat by the Spokane Indians. 
And Col. Wright's Victory over the Same and 
their Horses. 
By L., in '-Oregonian." 

In the spring of 1858, some Palouse Indians stole some stock 
belonging to the Government from the vicinity of Fort Walla 
Walla, of which Lieutenant-Colonel Steptoe was in command, at 
the same time certain complaints of disturbances and dangers 
caused by Indians, and suffered by miners in or proceeding to the 
Colville mines, were also brought to the same officei*'s notice. 
Two miners coming overland from Thomjjson river, British 
Columbia, to Colville, had fallen victims to the savage ferocity of 
some natives, of what tribe it is impossible to say. Such being 
the case, Steptoe judged it proper to conduct an armed expedition 
to Colville to inquire into the matter, and punish the murderers 
and restore order. On his return he " allowed " (Steptoe was a 
Southerner) to stop in at the home of the Palouses and see about 
the stock they had lifted. The Palouses were not, on the whole, 
very desirable neighbors. If there ever existed a people to which 
they might fairly be compared, it must have been the ancient 
Scotch borderers, whose business was theft, and whose numbers, 
as in the case of the Indian tribe, were recruited from the worst 
and most desperate individuals of all the neighboring nations. 
Notice must here be taken of the beginning of the trouble — the 
proposed government military road from Walla Walla to Fort 
Benton, on the upper Missouri. [This road alone cost the Govern- 
ment more than would have opened 1,000 miles of river naviga- 
tion free to the people, down to the sea. And it was not half 
built. And the Government spent ten times as much on each of 
other roads that were never even open to travel, j The military 
and topographical engineers had pronounced it practicable, and 
the secretary of war had ordered the survey. Lieutenant JMulhin 
was ordered to perforin the work, and was to have an escort of 
soldiers from Walla Walla. He was to set out in May, 1858, but 
so slow were the motions of the authorities that the Indians heard 



172 Indians, Continued. 



of it, and immediately concluded that it was but a move designed 
for taking away their country. They became nervous, and their 
spirits being preyed upon by designivg men, they combined for 
resistance. 

It is proven by good evidence that when Steptoe and his 150 
men set out on May 6, 1858, to march north-east from Walla Walla, 
the supply of amnumition which was intended to ))e taken, was 
taken back to the magazine because there was no room for it in 
the packs of the 100 mules. So the men set out with only the 
ammunition carried in their cartridge boxes. Hence occurred the 
disaster. The force consisted of two howitzers, five company 
officers, and 152 men. 

The line of march led through what are now Columbia and 
Garfield counties, and the Snake river was reached at Alpowa 
creek, where a small band of Nez-Perces resided, whose chief, 
Timothy — a Christian Indian — was a firm friend of the Whites, 
and who still continues to live at the spot. Timothy, with three 
warriors, joined the command — a circumstance upon which de- 
pended the lives of all. Marching north, the expedition ap- 
proached four lakes, (the medical lakes) where a great body of 
Indians were met, who threatened violence if the troops did not 
at once turn back and get out of the country. It was resolved to 
return to Walla Walla. They broke camp at three o'clock in the 
morning, followed by all the noisy horde of savages, who seemed 
intent on fighting, and only waited for the troops to strike the first 
blow. Saltees, a Cour d'Alene chief, appeared, accompanied by 
Father Josef, the missionary to that tribe, and held a conference 
with Steptoe, the missionary interpreting. The chief then shouted 
something to his followers, when Levi, of the Nez-Perces, struck 
him on the head with a whip handle, exclaiming, "What for 
you tell Steptoe you no fight, and then say to your men, wait 
awhile? You talk two tongues.'' [Getting civilized like a Governor.] 

The fight began as the command approached Pine creek. Ap- 
proaching this creek, the command passed down a ravine, and on 
reaching the stream the Indians commenced firing from the 
brush on the south side and from various elevated points near by. 
Lieuteiuint (Gaston charged forward and cleared a way to the 
highlands southward, and the entire force gained a commanding 
position. The howitzers were unlimbered and opened on the foe, 
and one or two charges were made. Two privates were wounded 
and a blundering soldier killed a friendly Nez-Perce, mistaking 



Indians, Continued. 173 



him for an eueiny. Again the retreat was resumed and continued 
through the forenoon, the Indians following closely and fighting 
with the troops in the rear. As long as their ammunition held 
out they were kept at bay, but Gaston's men having fired their last 
cartridge, he (Gaston) sent to Steptoe requesting him to halt long- 
enough to procure ammunition. The request was not granted. 
On an-iving at Cache ci"eek, word was passed that Lieutenant 
Gaston was killed, and the order to halt was given. A Aiolent 
struggle took place over his body, the Indians securing it. Tay- 
lor was killed there and two privates, Barnes and DeMay, were 
killed or mortally wounded, and another one was wounded by an 
arrow from a dying savage. Lieutenant Gregg caUed on the 
main body of troops for volunteers to relieve the rear guard, but 
only ten men responded. He ordered them to fall in behind him, 
but looking back directly after, found himself all alone. The 
heroic rear guard repulsed the Indians, however, and the com- 
numd went into camp on the spot. Pickets were thrown out, and 
such of the dead as could be found were buried here. The 
howitzers were also buried, but the pack train and provisions it 
was decided to leave for the Indians, in order to delaj^ their 
pursuit. The savages were encamped in plain sight in the bottom 
waiting the mori'ow, when they would make a last onslaught and 
end the contest mth a general massacre. Their sentinels had 
surrounded the camp, and were guarding all the avenues of exit 
save one, which it was not supposed the soldiers could traverse. 
But this became their salvation, for the pass was known by the 
Nez-Perce, Timothy, and through it he led the ti'oops to safety. 
But for him, probably, not one of the command would have 
escaped. 

The night was dark and cheerless, and when the proper time 
arrived the entire force mounted and followed the chief in sin<rle 
file, as noiselessly as possible, through the unguarded pass. Two 
wounded soldiers, McCrossen and Williams, the one shot through 
the hip, the other mth his back broken, who, tied ujxui horses, 
begged to be killed at once rather than be tortured by such a ride, 
and becoming untied, were left alive on the trail, a prey to the 
Indians — a fearful fate, too horrible to contemplate. '' For God's 
sake, give me something to kill myself with," they cried, as the 
troops disappeared in the darkness. 

Through the night the rapid trot or gallop was kept up, fol- 
lowing the faithful Nez-Perce. 



174 Indians, Continued. 



The wounded were left te take care of themselves, and the 
line of demoralized and frightened troops passed southward, put- 
ting whatever of distance they might between themselves and the 
enemy for twenty-four hours. They rode ninety miles, and 
reached the Snake river four miles below where they crossed it on 
the march northward. Going up to Timothy's village, that de- 
voted chief summoned his own men and put them on guard, while 
the exhausted cavalcade was ferried across to their haven of 
refuge, the south side of the Snake. 

On the 24th of September, Steptoe's force reached the Pataha, 
where he was joined by Captain Dent, who brought supplies and 
reinforcements. Here, too, came Chief Lawyer, with a formid- 
able war party of Nez-Perces, who begged the defeated troops to 
return with him and try the fortunes of war again with the 
Northern Indians. But was rejected. Considering the gallant 
behavior of the Nez-Perces, two of the four only escaping alive 
from the fight, and the services they rendered subsequently, their 
treatment by the Whites was contemptible. And Steptoe, in an 
official letter, to swell the number (500 to 600) of enemies which 
had been encountered, falsely stated that some of the Nez-Perces 
were engaged in the attack, and omitted to mention their offer of 
reinforcements. Then Steptoe was promoted, and then he joined 
the Southern Confederacy." 

" General Clarke at once sent up four companies from San 
Francisco to re-inforce the troops at Walla Walla. Keyes came 
up in charge of the expedition, with orders to report to Col. Geo. 
Wright at Walla Walla. The march of 177 miles over land from 
the dalles [rapids of the Columbia river] was very exhaustive, as 
it was late in June. At that time (1859) the sound of a steam- 
boat whistle had never been heard above Celilo. He built a small 
fort near the mouth of Tu-Canyon, where he left one company of 
artillery, under command of F. O. Wyse. The party, numbering 
about 900 men in all, crossed Snake river in boats on the 25th of 
August, and five days later met the red foe at the Four Lakes, 
where a battle was fought, which showed the Indians that Hudson 
Bay muskets were no match for the long-range rifles of the troops. 
This battle, which is known as the battle of Spokane Plains, ended 
about fourteen miles from where it began, and was fought in the 
smoke of burning gi*ass. Not a soldier was kiUed or wounded. 
The Indian loss was over ninety. [May be so.] 

On the 8th of September, Col. Grier captured a band of 900 



I 



Indians, Continued. 175 



horses. These he drove into camp. The officers and the quarter- 
master were allowed to select a certain number ; two were given 
to each friendly Indian; and, on the following day, the remaining 
690 horses were driven into a high enclosure, and shot down as 
fast as they entered. Toward the last the soldiers seemed to ex- 
ult in the bloody task, for such is the ferocious character of men. 
While the work of destruction was going on, I saw an Indian 
approaching our camp, carrying a long pole with a white flag on 
it, and in the cleft end of the pole was a letter from Father Josef, 
S. J., at the Cour d'Alene mission. He informed Col. Wright that 
in consequence of our victories, the hostiles were greatly cast 
down, and wished him to be their intercessor for peace. The 
father added in his communication, that the friendly Indians were 
delighted at our victories, as they had been threatened by the 
hostiles for not fighting. On the 22d the command camped on 
the Nedwall, a tributary of the Spokane, and in came old Owhi, 
who had been wounded on the Spokane plains. Wright ordered 
him to be put in irons at once. That afternoon six Indians were 
hanged, in squads of three, each. A messenger was then sent in 
search of Qualchin, the son of Owhi, who came into camp on the 
24th. He asked to see his father, and Col. Wright answered : 
'Owhi mitlite yawa.' (Owhi is over there.) As he said this a 
section of the guard sprang upon Qualchin and disarmed him. 
He had the strength of a Hercules, and notwithstanding he had 
an unhealed wound in his side, it took six men to tie his hands 
and feet. Within an hour, from his entry into Col. Wright's 
camp, he was hanged, by oi'der of that stern, old warrior." 

Yet, he had no more right in their country with an armed 
force, than Bismarck has against the natives of the Samoan 
Islands at this time, 1889 ; or the English to force rum into 
Africa, or opium into China, in the name of Christ and civili- 
zation. 

''The Chief Moses Outrage, 1883. 

The Oregonian has contained an account of the arrival of chief 
Moses at Fort Van Couver, to protest against the action of the 
Government in restoring to the public domain a portion of the re- 
servation, granted to Moses and his people a few years ago. 

By orders, dated April 9th, 1879, and March 6th, 1880, Presi- 
dent Hayes set apart for chief 3Ioses and his people, what is 
known as the Chief Moses Indian Reservation in the big bend of 



176 Indians, Continued. 



the Columbia river. It contains about three million acres, and 
some mining districts, supposed to be valuable. It will be re- 
membered, that the reservation was set apart after a long con- 
ference with Moses, who visited Washington and came back with 
the assurance, that he would never in future be dispossessed of 
the grant. 

On the 23rd of February last. President Arthur issued an 
order, restoring a tract about 15 miles wide and 100 miles long to 
the public domain. The strip is at the northern boundary of the 
reservation. ^\1iat influence brought about this action by the 
President, is not known here. That he should have taken such a 
step, when the faith of the Government was pledged, that the re- 
servation would not be disturbed, and that step, too, without con- 
sulting Moses' tribe, is a [masonic] mystery. 

It is a part of the grievance of chief Moses, that he was not 
consulted in the matter of taking away his land. Even to this 
time he has not received official notification of the President's 
action. His first hint of the order was the presence on his re- 
servation of miners and squatters, [themselves, or in the interest 
of a gang of masons, having liig influence at court,] who staked 
out claims, selecting in many instances lands occupied by Indian 
families. A better scheme to excite the anger of the Indians coiild 
not have been devised, and it is surprising that the outrage did 
not result at once in bloody warfare. And, in truth, only the pro- 
mise of Moses, to have the matter fixed to their satisfaction, re- 
strained his people from summary measures. The country has 
seen, in the case of the Musell slough settlers in California, [that 
were plundered of their homes by a gang of masons, having con- 
trol of the courts,] how white men feel under similar provocation, 
and from that can, perhaps, understand the spirit which Moses 
had, and has still, to combat. 

For a long time past it has been known, that I'ich gold and 
silver bearing ledges existed in the mountains within the limits of 
chief Moses' reservation, but it has not been so well known, that 
men [masons], owning immense wealth, have an interest in these 
mines, and that to their influence, and solely for their benefit, has 
such a large slice been taken from the Indians, without a why or 
wherefore, [and given to the gang. Practical miners and real 
citizens could never have thus acquired valuable property. — Here- 
after, when the people were trying to repel a fraudulent invasion 
of Chinese, it will be seen, how these charitable brethren wrung 



Indians, Continued. 177 



their hands in horror at ''violating the plighted faith of the 
Government," as they were making money out of them, and how 
they made money out of the Chinese war, as they do in that of 
the Indian.] 

The country so thrown open contains fifteen hundred square 
miles of territory, and, outside the mineral bearing region, con- 
tains land of very little value. 

It is known that the Indians are deeply dissatisfied with the 
act of the Government. That this act of bad faith rankles in their 
hearts as a most inexcusable and wanton injury. They cannot 
but iuterprete it as a further declaration, that the Indians have 
no rights, which the white man or his government is bound to re- 
spect. They cannot look upon it in any other light, than as a most 
perfidious violation of the plighted faith of the Government. 
Moreover, they look upon it merely as an initial encroachment, 
which will be followed by others, until their lands are wholly 
taken away, leaving them no dwelling place they can call their 
own. 

"What has heretofore happened in similar circumstances need 
not be recited in detail here. The Indians are not numerous. 
They can muster perhaps 600 men. But a less number of Modocs 
and a less number of Nez-Perces fought with a courage that won 
the admiration of the country, while they made its army mourn 
the loss of great numbers of its best officers and men, terrorized 
the country for hundi-eds of miles, and cost the Government tre- 
mendous exertions and millions of money [for the gang] to sub- 
due them. The causes of these risings bear a close parallel to the 
complaints now made by Moses and his people. In each case it 
was an attempt to deprive the Indians of their dwelling place 
without their consent. 

It is not to be supposed that the President has acted in this 
matter upon his own motion. By whom were the representations 
made which led to the order ? In case of an outbreak on the 
part of these Indians somebody will have to answer this question, 
[on the contrary, they are sworn to " ever conceal and never 
reveal'' these masonic mysteries]. It may be that the delegate 
from Washington territory could tell about the influence that 
secured the executive order. [But he was a mason himself]. 

The [masonic] policy of i)erfidy and robbery is as poor in 
point of expediency as it is poor in point of morality. We have 
paid for these things hitherto in murdered families, depopulated 
12 



178 Indians, Continued. 



settlements, men slain in battle, and untold sums of money ex- 
pended in Indian wars. The Indian is a strange compound of 
hasty spirit and stubborn fatalism. He acts from an impulse, 
dismissing prudence, and taking no thought of consequences ; 
and when overcome, he accepts his fate with indifference or forti- 
tude. He reasons that he might as M'ell die at once as to be 
stripped of his home, have no abiding place and no means of 
liviiiir ; and hence the motive from which he acts is a mixture re- 
suiting from a sense of injury, a desire of revenge, and a feeling 
of despair. 

But the weakness of these Indians let no one despise. Weak, 
indeed, they are ; but the poor reptile, trodden upon, has the in- 
stinct of seK-preservation, and may fatally sting. 

If it was deemed so necessary to get back a part of Moses' 
reservation, the honest way would have been to open a negotia- 
tion with him and his people, and satisfy them for the land. 

The [linked] politicians who shared in the attempt to rob 
Moses and his people of their land, the crowd who hoped for profit 
from this crime, and those who from principle, or the lack of it, 
or from habit, cry down the red man [and the white] without re- 
gard to the merits of his cause, have attempted to justify the 
careless ["?] act of the President. Unable to make out a case 
which could demand respect, with the simple truth, they have not 
hesitated to misrepresent the facts — in other words, they have 
lied. 

It is the opinion of officers now on the reservation, that if 
the old chief should begin hostilities, he would be joined by the 
disaffected living near him, and that he could muster a force suf- 
ficiently strong to spread desolation over the whole of north- 
eastern "Washington, [which would be a mint for tjie gang]. But 
warfare on Moses' part has never been feared, iinless, forced by 
the passions of his people, he shoidd have to abandon them oi* 
lead them." 

'' During the past ten years the Government has expended 
nearly $70,000,000 in caring [?] for the Indians [?]. The total 
number attached to agencies is only 246,000, and of these 60,000 
in Indian Territory, 7,700 in Wisconsin, and 5,000 in New York, 
are supposed to be at least partially self-supporting." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Indians, concluded. — "Tlie Waiilatpii massacre." — The tlinlling story of 
one who, as a giii, was an eve witness and then taken away as a 
prisoner. — Forebodings of the murderous outbreak. — Friendly warn- 
ing given. — The dying houi's of Dr. and. Mrs. Whitman. — Mission hfe 
among the Indians. — As the Indians were in 1852 and then in 1856.— 
Death of chief Kanaskat. — How Indians are preserved. — How " civili- 
zation " was introduced to the natives of South and Central America. 

The Waiilatpu Massacre. 

[Mrs. Clark Pringle, whose maiden name was Catherine Sager, and 
who was one of the children adojated by Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, was 13 
years old at the time of this notable massacre. She was an eye mtness to 
all that preceded it, as well as to much that occurred. Her experience was 
dreadful in the extreme. The f oUovring article was written by her and 
sent to Mr. S. A. Clarke, as a contiibution to his history of "Pioneer Days," 
and by him furnished to The Oregonian. Some new facts are learned 
from her account, although, even were not this the case, the narrative it- 
self would prove of sufficient interest to attract the reader. 

Mr. Clarke says : "I consider this the most valuable descrii^tion of that 
sad and terrible affair that ever has been written. Mrs. Pringle possesses 
rare ability as a A\T.-iter, as all must concede."] 

In the year 1836 Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife., in com- 
pany with Rev. H. H. Spalding- and wife, crossed the Rocky 
mountains and settled among the Nez-Perces and Cayuse Indians 
as missionaries. Dr. Whitman's location was among the latter 
tribe, in the Walla Walla valley. He and his bride had left civi- 
hzation immediately after their marriage and settled among 
savages, with the intention of raising them from their degradation. 
For eleven years the}' toiled with pleasing success, and were led 
to think that ere many years should pass their dreams would be 
realized, that the heathen tribe would be a Christian people. 

Their only child, a daughter, was drowned when two years 
old, but they had filled their house with children whom they had 
adopted. These children were as follows : A nephew of Dr. Whit- 
man ; three half-breeds, named Mary Ann Bridger, Helen M. 
Meek and David M. Cortez. In 1844 my parents died crossing the 
plains on their way to Oregon, leaving seven children, the eldest 
14 years old, and the youngest a babe of six months. We were at 
their request taken to the station of Dr. Whitman, and he and his 

(180) 



Mission Life among the Indians. 181 

wife adopted the seven. Here we lived the happy, careless life of 
childhood. It mattered not to us that om associations were con- 
fined to members of the family ; there were enough of us to keep 
the house ringing with mirth from morning until night. Three 
years this life lasted, and then a storm began to gather and cast 
its shadow over this happy home. First it was but a smaU cloud, 
in the distance ; then was heard low, muttering thunder; finally 
the whole horizon was overcast and the storm broke with a f ur}- 
that wrecked and scattered the household forever, casting a gloom 
over all coming time to those who survived its ravages. 

S03IE OF THE CAUSES. 

In the fall of 1847 the emigration over the mountains brought 
the measles. It spread among the Indians, and owing to their 
manner of living it proved very fatal. It was customary for emi- 
grant families who arrived late, to winter at the station, and some 
seven or eight families had put up there to spend the winter of 
1847. Among the arrivals was a half-breed named Joseph Lewis, 
who had joined the emigration at Fort Hall. Much against his 
will, the doctor admitted this person into his family for the 
winter. None of us liked him; he seemed surly and morose. 
There was also a Frenchman named Joseph Stanfield, who had 
been in the doctor's employ since the year 1845. Up to the year 
1847 the Protestant missions had been the only religious influence 
among the Indians. In the fall of this year the Catholic church 
established missions among them, and the teachings of the two 
clashed. The Indian mind is So constructed that he cannot re- 
concile the different isms, consequently they became much worked 
up on the subject. Many long talks occurred between them and 
Dr. Whitman, in reference to the two religious systems. Owing 
to the sickness, and these other causes, the natives began to show 
an insolent and hostile feeling. It was now late in the season and 
the weather was very inclement. Wliitman's large family were 
aU sick and the disease was raging fearfully among the Indians, 
who were rapidly dying. I saw from five to six buried daily. 
The field was open for creating mischief and the two Joes im- 
proved it. Jo Lewis was the chief agent ; his cupidity had been 
awakened and he and his associate expected to reap a large spoil. 
A few days previous to the massacre Mr. Spalding arrived at the 
station, accompanied by his daughter, 10 years old. She was the 
second child born of white parents west of the Rocky mountains. 



182 Indian Massacee. 



Dr. Whitman's child being the first. She had lived her ten years of 
life among the natives and spoke the language fluently. Saturday, 
after his arrival, Mr. Spalding accompanied Dr. "VMiitman to the 
Umatilla, to visit the Indians there and hold a meeting for wor- 
ship with them upon the Sabbath. They rode nearly all night, in 
a heavy rain. Dr. Whitman spent the next day visiting the sick, 
and returned to the lodge, where Mr. Spalding was staying, late 
in the afternoon, nearly worn out with fatigue. The condition of 
his family made it imperative that he should return home, so 
arrangements were made for Mr. Spalding to remain a few days 
on the Umatilla, to visit among and preach to the Indians. 

A CONSPIRACY UNFOLDED. 

As Dr. Whitman was mounting his horse to leave, Stickas, a 
friendly Christian Indian, who was the owner of the lodge, came 
out and told him that "Jo Lewis was making trouble ; that he was 
telling his (Stickas') people that the doctor and Mr. Spalding were 
poisoning the Indians, so as to give their country to his own 
people." He said : " I do not believe him, but some do, and I fear 
they will do you harm ; you had better go away for awhile, until 
my jDeople have better hearts." 

Doctor Whitman arrived at home about ten o'clock that night, 
having ridden twenty-five miles after sundown. He sent my two 
brothers, who were sitting up with the sick, to bed, saying that he 
would watch the remainder of the night. After they had retired 
he examined the patients, one after the other. (I also was lying 
sick at the time.) Coming to Helen, he spoke and told his wife, 
Avho was lying on the bed, that Helen was djdng. He sat and 
watched her for some time, when she rallied and seemed better. 
I had noticed that he seemed to be troubled when he first came 
lionie, but concluded that it was anxiety in reference to the sick 
children. 

Taking a chair, he sat down by the stove and requested his 
M'if e to arise, as he wished to talk with her. She complied, and he 
related to her what Stickas had told him that day ; also that he 
had learned that the Indians were holding councils every night. 

After conversing for some time, his wife retired to another 
room and the doctor kept his lonely watch. Observing that I was 
restless, he surmised that I had overheard the conversation. By 
kind and soothing words he allayed my fears, and I went to sleep. 
I can see it all now, and remember just how he looked. 



Mission Life among the Indjans. 183 

The fatal 29th of November dawned, a cold, foggy morning. 
It would seem as though the sun was afraid to look upon the 
blood}^ deed the day was to bring forth, and that nature Avas 
weeping over the wickedness of man. Father's (Dr. Whitman) 
brow was serene, with no trace of the storm that had raged in his 
breast during the night. He was somewhat more serious than 
usual. Most of the children were better, only three being danger- 
ous ; two of these afterwards died. We saw nothing of mother 
(Mrs. Whitman). One of the girls put some breakfast on a plate 
and carried it to her. She was sitting Anth her face buried in her 
handkerchief, sobbing bitterly. Taking the food she motioned 
the child to leave. The food was there, untouched, next morning. 

LAST HOUR AT WHITMAN'S STATION. 

An Indian child had died during the night and was to be 
brought to the station for burial. While awaiting the coming of 
the corpse. Dr. Whitman sat reading and conversing with his 
assistant, Mr. Rodgers, upon the difficulties that seemed to sur- 
round him, the discontent of the Indians, the Catholics forcing 
themselves upon him, and the insinuations of Jo Lewis. He 
made plans for conciliating the natives and for improving their 
condition. He said that the bishop was coming to see him in a 
few days, and he thought that then he could get the Indians to 
give him leave to go away in the spring, adding: 

*' If things do not clear up by that time, I will move my 
famil}^ beloAv." 

Being informed of the arrival of the corpse, he arose, and 
after calling his wife and giving her directions in regard to the 
sick children, he wended his way to the graveyard. 

A beef had to be killed for the use of the station, and my 
brother Francis, accompanied by Jo Stanfield, had gone early to 
the range and driven it in, and three or four men were dressing 
it near the grist-miU, which was running, grinding grist for the 
Indians. 

Upon the retiu'u from the funeral the doctor remarked that 
none but the relatives were at the burying, although large num- 
bers were assembled near by ; but it might be owing to the beef 
being killed, as it was their custom to gather at such times. His 
wife requested him to go up stairs to see Miss Bewley, who was 
quite sick. He complied, returning shortly with a troubled look 
on his countenance. He crossed the room to a sash door that 



18^ Indian Massacre. 



fronted the mill, and stood for some moments drumming upon 
the glass with his fingers. Turning around, he said : 

" Poor Lorinda is in trouble and does not know the cause. I 
found her weeping, and she said there was a presentiment of evil 
on her mind that she could not overcome. I will get her some 
medicine, and, wife, you take it up to her, and try and comfort 
her a little, for I have failed in the attempt." 

As he said this he walked to the medicine case, and was 
making a selection. His wife had gone to the pantry for milk tor 
one of the children ; the kitchen was full of Indians, and their 
boisterous manner alarmed her. She fled to the sitting room, 
bolting the door in the face of the savages who tried to pass in. 
She had not taken her hand from the lock when the Indians 
rapped and asked for the doctor. She said, " Doctor, you are 
wanted." He went out, telling her to fasten the door after him ; 
she did so. Listening for a moment, she seemed to be reassured, 
crossed the room and took up the youngest child. She sat down 
with this child in her arms. Just then Mrs. Osborn came in from 
an adjoining room and sat down. This was the first time this 
lady had been out of her room for weeks, having been very ill. 

THE STORM BURSTS ON WAIILATPU. 

She had scarcely sat down when we were all startled by an 
explosion that seemed to shake the house. The two women 
sprang to their feet, and stood with white faces and distended 
eyes. The children rushed out doors, some of them without 
clothes, as we were taking a bath. Placing the child on the bed, 
Mrs. Whitman called us back and started for the kitchen, but 
changing her mind, she fastened the door, and told Mrs. Osborn 
to go to her room and lock the door, at the same time telling us 
to put on our clothes. All this happened much quicker than I 
can write it. Mrs. "Whitman then began to walk the floor Avring- 
ing her hands, saying, " Oh, the Indians ! the Indians ! they have 
killed my husband, and I am a widow ! " She repeated this many 
times. At this time, Mary Ann, who was in the kitchen, rushed 
around the house and came in at a door that was not locked ; her 
face was deathly white ; we gathered around her and inquired if 
father was dead ? She replied, " Yes." Just then a man from 
the beef came in at the same door, with his arm broken. He 
said: "Mrs. Whitman, the Indians are killing us all." This 
roused her to action. The wounded man was lying on the floor 



Mission Life among the Indians. 185 

calling for water. She brought him a pitcherful from another 
room, locked all the dooi*s, then unlocking that door she went into 
the kitchen. As she did so, several emigrant women, with their 
small children, rushed in. Mrs. Whitman was trying to drag her 
husband in ; one of the women went to her aid, and they brought 
him in. He was fatally wounded, but conscious. The blood was 
streaming from a gunshot wound in the throat Kneeling over 
him, she implored him to speak to her. To all her questions he 
whispered '' Yes," or " No," as the case might be. Mrs. Whitman 
would often step to the sash door and look out through the win- 
dow to see what was going on out of doors, as the roar of guns 
showed us that the blood-thirsty fiends were not yet satisfied. At 
such times she would exclaim : " Oh, that Jo Lewis is doing it 
all ! " Several times this wretch came to the door and tried tc 
get into the room where we were. When Mrs. Whitman would 
ask, '• What do you want, Joe?" he would run away. Looking 
out we saw Mr. Rodgers running toward the house, hotly pursued 
by Indians. He sprang against the door, breaking out two panes 
of glass. Mrs. Whitman opened the door and let him in, and 
closed it in the face of his pursuers, who, with a yell, turned to 
seek other victims. Mr. Rodgers was shot through the WTist and 
tomahawked on the head ; seeing the doctor lying upon the floor, 
he asked if he was dead, to which the doctor replied, " No." 

MRS. WHITMAN FALLS ! 

The school teacher, hearing the report of the guns in the 
kitchen, ran down to see what had happened ; finding the door 
fastened, he stood for a moment, when Mrs. Whitman saw him, 
and motioned for him to go back. He did so, and had reached 
the stairs leading to the school room, Avlien he was seized by a 
savage, who had a large butcher knife. Mr. Sanders struggled, 
and was about to get away, when another burly savage came to 
the aid of the first. Standing by Mrs. Whitman's side I watched 
the hoiTid strife, until sickened, I turned away. Just then a 
bullet came through the window piercing Mrs. Whitman's 
shoulder. Clapping her hands to the wound she shrieked Anth 
pain, and then fell to the floor. I ran to her and tried to raise 
her up. She said, " Child, you cannot help me, save yourself." 
We all crowded around her and began to weep. She commenced 
praying for us, " Lord, save these little ones." She repeated this 



186 Indian Massacre. 



over many times. She also prayed for her parents, saying : 
" This -will kill my poor mother. " 

The women now began to go up stairs, and Mr. Rodgers 
pushed us to the stairway. I was filled with agony at the idea of 
leaving the sick ehildi'en, and refused to go. Mr. Rodgers was too 
excited to speak, so taking up one of the children he handed her 
to me, and motioned for me to take her up. I passed her to some 
one else, turned and took another, and then the third, and ran up 
myself. Mr. Rodgers then helped mother to her feet and brought 
her up stairs, and laid her on the bed. He then knelt in prayer, 
and while thus engaged, the crashing of doors informed us that 
the work of death was accomplished out of doors, and our time 
had come. The wounded man, whose name was Kimball, said 
that if we had a gun to hold over the bannisters, it might keep 
them away. There happened to be an old broken gun in the room 
and this was placed over the railing. By this time they were 
smashing the door leading to the stairway. Having accomplished 
this they retired. All was quiet for awhile, then we heard foot- 
steps in the room below, and a voice at the bottom of the stairway 
called Mr. Rodgers. 

SAVAGE TREACHERY. 

It was an Indian, who represented that he had just come ; he 
would save them if he would come down. After a good deal of 
parleying he came up. I told mother that I had seen him killing 
the teacher, but she thought I was mistaken. He said that they 
were going to burn the house, and that we must leave it. I 
wrapped my little sister up, and handed her to him with the re- 
quest that he would carry her. He said that they would take 
Mrs. Whitman away and then come back for us. Then all left 
save the children and Mr. Kimball. When they reached the room 
below, mother was laid upon the settee, and carried out into the 
yard by Mr. Rodgers and Jo Lems. Having reached the yard, 
Jo dropped his end of the settee, and a volley of bullets laid Mr. 
Rodgers, mother, and brother Francis, bleeding and dying, on 
the ground. While the Indians were holding a council, to decide 
how to get Mrs. Whitman and Mr. Rodgers into their hands, Jo 
Lewis had been sent to the school room to get the school children. 
They had hid in the attic, but were ferreted out and brought to 
the kitchen, where they were placed in a row to be shot. But 
the chief relented, and said they should not be hurtj but my 



Mission Life among the Indians. 187 

brother Francis was killed soon after. My oldest brother was 
shot at the same time the doctor Avas. 

Night had now come, and the chief made a speech in favor of 
sparing the women and children, which was done, and they all 
became prisoners. Ten ghastly, bleeding corpses lay in and 
around the house. Mr. Osborn's family had secreted themselves 
under the lloor, and escaped during the night, and after great 
hardships reached Fort Walla Walla. One other man escaped to 
this fort, but was never heard of again. Another fled to Mr. 
Spalding's station ; Mr. Kimball was killed the next day ; Mr. 
Spalding remained at Umatilla until Wednesday, and was within 
a few miles of the doctor's station when he learned the dreadful 
news. He fled, and after great suffering reached his station, 
which had been saved by the presence of mind and shrewdness of 
his wife. Mr. Canfield was wounded, but concealing himself until 
night, he fled to Mr. Spalding's station. 

HOW DR. WHITMAN FELL. 

The manner of the attack on Doctor Whitman I learned 
afterwards from the Indians. Upon entering the kitchen, he took 
his usual seat upon the settee tvhich was between the wall and the 
cook stove ; an Indian began to talk with him in reference to a 
patient the doctor was attending. While thus engaged, an Indian 
struck him from behind on the head with a tomahawk ; at the 
same moment two guns were discharged, one at the doctor, and 
the other at brother John, who was engaged in winding twine for 
the purpose of making brooms. The men at the beef were set 
upon ; Mr. Kimball had his arm broken by a bullet and fled to 
the doctor's house. Mr. Hoffman fought bravely with an ax ; he 
split the foot of the savage wlio first struck the doctor, but was 
overpowered. Mr. Canfield was shot, the bullet entering his side, 
but he made his escape. The miller fell at his post. Mr. HaU 
was laying the upper floor of a building ; leaping to the ground 
he wrested a gun from an Indian and fled to the fort. He was 
never seen or heard of afterwards, and it is surmised that he was 
murdered there. The tailor was sitting upon his table sewing, an 
Indian stepped in, shot him with a pistol and then went out ; he 
died at midnight after great suffering. Night came and put an 
end to the carnival of blood. 

The November moon looked down, bright and cold, upon the 
scene, nor heeded the groans of the dying, who gave forth their 



188 Indian Massacre, 



plaiuts to the chill night air. Mr. Osborn's family was concealed 
where they could hear Mr. Rodger's words as he prayed to that 
Saviour whom he had loved and served for many years. His 
last words were, " Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly ! " The clock 
tolled the midnight hour ere death came to the relief of these victims 
of savage brutality. The dead bodies lay where they fell, from 
Monday night until Wednesday, when the Christian Indians, 
among whom the doctor and his wife had labored for eleven 
years, and from whom the natives have received nothing but 
kindness, gave consent to have them buried, but not one of them 
would help in the task. Jo Stanfield was set at the work. A 
gi-ave three feet deep and vvdde enough to receive the eleven 
victims was dug, and the bodies placed in it. Wolves excavated 
the grave and devoured the remains. The volunteers who went 
up to fight the Indians gathered up the bones, placed them in a 
wagon box, and again buried them, and this is all the burial 
these martyrs of Americanism in Oregon have ever received. A 
monument is now being built to their memory. 

Catharine S. Prindle. 



Pioneer Days. 



A brief histoiy of the "Wliitman mission-life at Waiilatini. — The murderous 
tribe of Cayuse Indians and their ideas of treachery. The final scene 
of massacre. 

[Written /u7- the Sunday Oregonian.'\ 

Endowed with a pure religious devotion, Marcus Whitman, a 
physician of good repute, and Narcissa, his wife, in the prime of 
a life of activity and usefulness, devoted themselves to missionary 
work among the Indians of Oregon. 

There was something above the ordinary demands for such 
service in the circumstance that attended this act of devotion on 
their part. A story that bordered on romance, and partook of the 
old crusaders' spirit, called for recruits to go to the far Columbia, 
and attempt to Christianize the heathen tribes that had lived so 
many ages in ignorance upon the farthest waters of the great 
river of the West. A message sounded on the Missouri frontier 
that resounded througli the United States like the Macedonian 
cry for help. A small company of Flatheads and Nez-Perces found 
their way across the intervening wilderness and arrived at St. 
Louis one half century ago, who said they came to ask that some 



Mission Life among the Indians. 189 

man competent to teach the true religion of the Whites should 
come to make their people acquainted with the Saviour that the 
Christians worshipped. One of them had died on the joiu'uey to 
the East. It is hardly possible to imagine how this little com- 
pany of seekers of the light made up their minds to take this 
journey, and finally accomplished it. There must have been 
careful selection of the most competent for the mission ; much 
advice as to the methods to be followed, and much caution as to 
the best coui-se to be pursued. Certain it is that this embassy 
was entitled and commissioned for this purpose, and found its 
way as far east as St. Louis. They probably accompanied some 
returning party of fur traders, and made themselves useful on the 
way. St. Louis was the metropolis of the fur trade, and they 
naturally reached that city in such company. It was like an 
electric shock to the Christian people there to know that from the 
farthest West there had come to them this message and demand 
for Christian teaching for the tribes beyond the Rocky moun- 
tains. 

A christian fur trader. 

Among the few fur traders who found their way to the 
Pacific, there were a very few who were zealous Christians and 
lived lives of fervent piety, surrounded though they were by men 
whose impiety was proverbial. One of these was Jedediah Smith, 
the partner of Sublettes, himself one of the best known men be- 
yond the Western frontier. Jedediah Smith spent much time 
among the Flatheads, which tribe was very closely related, it is 
said, with the Nez-Perces. The language spoken is the same, or 
similar. During his association with these tribes Smith gave 
them some information of the Christian religion, and of Christ, 
the Saviour. These teachings fervently impressed the minds of 
both tribes, for they had traits of character readily impressed by 
religious instruction. They were by natui'e far superior to most 
of the natives of Oregon of that day. It is said that it was in 
consequence of the words and work of Jedediah Smith that they 
finally equipped and sent eastward the embassy that asked for 
Christian teachers to expound to them the true story of the white 
man's God. So this word reached the frontier and thence tra- 
versed Christendom, and resulting in the sending hither the 
several missions first established among Oregon Indians. When 
Jason Lee and his company came, they intended to locate among 



190 Indian Massacre. 



the Flatheads, but concluded to winter here in the Willamette. 
The result was that they located here permanently. But the first 
Methodist mission came in response to the appeal we have men- 
tioned, and was turned from that purpose after arrival in Oregon. 
Whitman came for the same purpose, and his associate went to 
the Nez-Perces, whilst he planted the standard among the 
Cayuses. 

It is related of the four who came on this wonderful mission 
to the East, only one finally returned to his home and his people. 
Two were taken ill and died while at the East, and another died 
on the way home. Their mission was one of peace, but it was 
fraught with unseen and unapprehended danger to those who bore 
it. They ventured far from home, and laid down their lives in 
the service of theii' people, and in the cause of true religion. 
They sounded the cry from a far country for help, and did not 
live to see the realization of their hopes. 

ANSWERING THE CALL. 

Dr. Whitman, in company with Rev. Samuel Parker, com- 
menced the joui'ney to Oregon in the spring of 1835. They 
journeyed as far west as the American rendezvous, on Green 
river, where they found a party of Nez-Perce Indians, who hailed 
their coming joyfully. They agreed to take Mr. Parker with 
them to the Columbia, and meet Dr. Whitman on his return the 
next year, with reinforcements strong enough to do good work. 
A young Nez-Perce, who was called "Lawyer," heard of their 
presence, and went to see them at their rendezvous. Dr. Whit- 
man took back with him two Indian boys to be educated at the 
East. As the tribe was well represented at the rendezvous, the 
missionaries were able to make arrangements of a satisfactory 
nature for the establishing of missions in their country. 

In 1836, Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, and Rev. and Mrs. Spalding, 
with W. H. Gray, as financial agent of the missions, crossed the 
plains to Oregon. They journeyed with fur traders to Green 
river, where they found their Nez-Perce allies in waiting. The 
Indians proposed making quite a detour to carry out their plans 
for buffalo hunting, and as Whitman found a party of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company going direct towards the Columbia, he 
accepted an invitation to accompany them. One of the Nez-Perc6 
chiefs went with them as an honorable escort. 

So they reached the Columbia, where the Whitmans located 



Mission Life among the Indians. 191 

a mission on the Walla Walla river, five miles below the city that 
now bears that name. Mr. and Mrs. Spalding went a hundred 
miles east and made a station at LapAvai, in the heart of the Xez- 
Perce country. It is not necessary to furnish particulars of their 
journey across the continent. Enough has been said on that sub- 
ject in reciting the adventures of many others. They were 
warmly welcomed and immediately went to work to build stations 
and erect mills and establish schools. It was a great event to 
these native tribes to have Christian teachers, as well as civiUzed 
workers, among them. They, for a while, appreciated their ad- 
vantages, but in time became accustomed to them as a matter of 
course. This was especially true of the Cayuses, who were among 
the most savage and barbarous of all savages. They constantly 
imposed upon the good nature and forbearance of their teachers 
and made life distressing to them. 

LOCATING THE MISSION STATIONS. 

Dr. Whitman lived and labored among these people for 
eleven years, from 1836 to 1847. He taught many of them the 
rudiments of education and the arts of civilized life. They were 
instructed in the use of tools to some extent, furnished lumber, and 
were received and entertained at the mission. Much pains were 
taken with the young, and much kindness shown the older 
ones. In 1838 another mission was established in the vicin- 
ity of Fort Colville, among the Spokanes. In 1839 a print- 
ing press was at work at Lapwai, and a number of books 
and pamphlets were published for the use of different 
Indian schools. Still another mission station was established 
farther up the Clearwater, at Kamiah. So the natives of that 
region had efficient teachers and good schools. Only at Wliit- 
man's station was there ever any serious trouble or ill feeling. 
Individual cases of rudeness or misconduct occurred, but there 
was fair appreciation and good feeling, except among the Cay- 
uses, whose religious sentiments and convictions never overcame 
their savage natures to make them reliably peaceful, and con- 
sistently kind and honest. 

DIFFICULTIES AND DANGERS. 

From 1836 until 1841, for five years, there was no opposition 
to the Protestant missions or outside interference with the 
mission work. The Hudson Bay Company was in full accord. 



192 Indian Massacre. 



Though himself a Catholic, Dr. McLoughlin was truly a Christian 
man, and treated Whitman with the truest sympathy and person- 
al kindness. [Dr. McLoughlin was the Father of Oregon.] The 
two men naturally accorded in their personal relations, and 
the officers of that company generally were friendly. But about 
1841, the disturbing cause that was to be so potent for harm, be- 
came established among the natives on the Upper Columbia in 
the presence of Catholic priests, who secured a hold, and left no 
means untried to increase it. Among Cayuses there were not 
only differences of belief in the tribe, but some families 
were of divided allegiance. Up to this time there had been no 
serious trouble, but now the record we have shows that these in- 
famous Cayuses forced indignities upon Dr. "Whitman that he 
could not resent. His Christian character was at stake. He must 
bear and forbear, and some of these wretches took advantage of 
this fact to impose upon him fearfully. At one time he was 
struck, or had his ear pulled, by a man he had taught the 
Christian virtue of forbearance. He tui'ued the other ear and the 
savage pulled that also. It was one man and a defenseless family, 
among a horde of miscreants. It would seem that the confidence 
shown by coming there, so defenseless, with no object but their 
good, would impress even the soul of a savage, but not so with 
Cayuses. I cannot believe that the presence and teachings of a 
rival religion had not some part to account for these indignities 
and massacre towards which they culminated. 

DISTURBANCE IN THE FOLD. 

The history of missions proves the weakness of human nature. 
Differences occur even among those who devote their lives to the 
elevation of humanity. This is especially true of missions in far- 
off places, where the missionary is altogether removed from the 
influences of society. Thus it happened in this Indian mission 
that at an early day disagreements occurred. 

In 1841, A. B. Smith and wife left for the islands. Letters 
had gone home to the American board, derogatory of the working 
force. The natives very possibly saw that differences existed 
among their religious teachers, and that fact may have worked to 
a disadvantage. There is no reason to believe that these differ- 
ences lasted longer than when several who were dissatisfied had 
withdrawn. You have published already a letter from Rev. E. 
Walker to the board that treats boldly and plainly of the dis- 



Mission Life among the Indians. 193 

turbing cause. It is not necessary to repeat it now. The Cayuses 
were veritable savages. They would at times become enraged for 
some cause and be dangerous to all at the mission. Whatever 
irritated them made them ferocious and long for blood. After a 
war trip towards California, where they murdered many of their 
old enemies, they returned home to dance around their bloody 
scalps, and threaten death promiscuously. At that period the 
mission party was in great fear, but time passed and the Indians 
became good tempered. At one time they were much impressed, 
because one of their chiefs on his death bed professed Christian 
faith, and in his last hours experienced an ecstacy of joy, and 
gave them good counsel. 

CAYUSE ILL NATURE. 

In all the upper country there were in 1840 to 1850 only a 
few trading posts and a few mission stations, with no settlers and 
no military posts. The missions were defenseless, save as the 
Hudson Bay Company's agents bravely espoused their cause. 
Mr. Gray had built a new house ; an Indian one day came in and 
jilaced himself between the cook and the fire, and would not leave. 
Mr. Gray very properly put him out, after kindly asking him to 
stand aside. Then he went to the corral and took a horse. When 
Whitman was appealed to he supported Gray. This led to an 
angry talk ; Telonkait, an Indian chief, pulled the doctoi*'s ear ; 
the man of peace turned the other, and he pulled that. He threw 
the doctor's hat three times in the mud and struck him on the 
breast. Having been unable to force Whitman to some resist- 
ance that would be an excuse for a massacre, he desisted. Arch- 
ibald McKinlay was chief trader at Wallula. He called the 
Indians there, shortly after this occurrence, imder pretense of 
wishing to buy horses, and gave them a terrible overhauling for 
this treatment of one who came among them only for their good. 
He said it was the conduct of " dogs," which they bitterly re- 
sented. They finally admitted they had done wrong. McKinlay 
threatened that a force should come up from Vancouver to punish 
them if they did any harm. They had gone to the fort at this 
time with the apparent intention to capture it. They had made 
threats to that effect that Whitman reported to McKinlay by a 
courier. This trouble was tided over, and for some years there 
was no particular cause for complaint. In 1842, Wliitman went 
East, making the midwinter journey heretofore related. He 
13 



194 Indian Massacre. 



returned in the summer of 1843, with the large emigration that 
permanently settled the status of Oregon as an American country. 
He found his mill burned, and that his wife had been obliged to 
take refuge at Vancouver from the insolence of the Cayuses. 
The Indians were doubtless disturbed by the interest Whitman 
took in peopling the country with white settlers. They looked 
with alarm on this great invasion of Americans, and their preju- 
dice against Whitman was somewhat effected for that reason. 
So the three years passed, from 1844 to 1847, and whilst their 
prejudice was more confirmed, Whitman was unwilling to aban- 
don the field. He saw, and frequently spoke of, this hostile senti- 
ment, and expressed an intention to abandon Waiilatpu, but 
unhappily did not make the movement. 

DISAFFECTION INCREASES. 

At this time a change had taken place in the officer in charge 
at Fort Walla Walla. McKinlay, Whitman's fast friend, was 
living at Oregon City, and his successor at this post was Wm. Mc- 
Bean, who was also a Catholic. Both at Whitman's and Spalding's 
stations there had been considerable improvement among the In- 
dians in their occupations, and a number had joined the church. 
But in 1847 disaffection became more manifest among the Cayuses, 
and Whitman thought seriously of submitting the question of his 
leaving or staying to their popular vote. He felt, however, that 
to leave would be to abandon the field to the Catholics, and that 
was something his pride could not submit to. This season was 
unfortunate, because disease spread among the natives and many 
died of it. Whitman, in his capacity of physician, did all he 
could for them, but their habits of life were such that he could not 
treat them satisfactorily. 

Whitman's place was on the line of travel taken by the emigrants, 
and was a place of general rest for the weary sojourners fresh from 
the plains. The presence of so many Americans there and the 
fact of so many others passing through to occupy the country, may 
have had an unfavorable effect. 

A VIEW OF WAIILATPU. 

It is necessary to take a view of the mission and its occupants 
in the autumn of 1847 to understand the situation, as well as to 
appreciate what the mission had accomplished for the practical 
welfare of the Indians. The mission was a resting-place, refuge 



Mission Life among the Indians. 195 

or hospital for emigrants or Indians alike who might need its 
care. Here was the church where the principles of religion were 
taught and schools were established to educate white and Indian 
children, besides which every effort was made to teach the Cayuses 
and TVaUa Wallas the common arts of civilization and the best 
methods for cultivating the soil. For their benefit not only 
church, school and library were sustained, but there were labor 
lessons given, and saw- and grist-mills, shops and granaries had 
been erected. A valuable cabinet of specimens of uatm'al history 
had been collected at the superintendent's residence. There was 
a spacious building for the Indians, another for travellers. The 
saw-mill was eight miles up Mill creek. 

On the 5th of September, 184:7, seventy-two persons occupied 
these premises, consisting of the Whitmans and Rodgers, the mis- 
sionary, with ten adopted children, waifs from the plains, whose 
parents had perished by the way. Seven of them were the Sager 
family, and there were three half-breed children. Twenty-two 
persons occupied the superintendent's house. Joseph Stanfield 
was a Canadian and Joseph Lewis was a half-breed Indian who 
had crossed the plains from Canada the preceding year, and had 
received employment after he recovered from a serious illness. 
He was a wretch, who should have had some love for his benefac- 
tors instead of being the fiend he soon proved. There was Miss 
Bewley and her brother ; Mr. Hoffman, Mr. Soles and Eliza Spal- 
ding, daughter of the missionary. There were fifty others of the 
last immigration resting there on their way to Western Oregon. 
Bewley and Sales were sick patients. Ten of the emigrants also 
were sick patients. Such was the composition of the mission 
family. 

whitman's work. 

It can be seen that Whitman's work was most beneficient and 
useful to aU mankind. Here, in the midst of savages. Dr. Whit- 
man had lived through eleven years and had patiently endured 
privations and hardships to benefit a race that could not appreciate 
his devotion. To them he brought civilized life and its comforts 
without any resulting benefits to himself or to his family. His 
character commended him so greatly to Dr. McLoughlin that the 
great chief factor felt for him the warmest friendship. Differing 
in religion, they respected each other; strongly differing in aU 
political and national purposes, they were more than friends. 
While the Hudson's Bay Company was bringing over colonies to 



196 Indian Massacre. 



people Oregon and make it British by occupancy, Dr. "Whitman 
went East to lead back a great emigration that should make this 
country distinctively American. In all things, save personal re- 
gard, these men were at swords' points and antagonized. It shows 
the nobility of soul that each possessed; that, laying aside these 
points of difference, they met as something more than friends. 
McLoughlin invited "Whitman to "Vancouver when the troubles of 
1841 occurred, and recommended that he should withdraw from 
"Waiilatpu for some time until the Indians should feel his absence 
and ask his return. This was sound advice. A few weeks before 
the massacre Dr. "Whitman was at Oregon City and visited his 
friend Archibald McKinlay. When he told the latter that a chief 
had jestingly said to him that "the Cayuses had considered 
whether they ought not to kill off all the medicine men, and that 
as he was greatest among doctors, if they did so they should be- 
gin with him," McKinlay was alarmed. He told Whitman that 
behind a savage jest there was always deeper meaning; that he 
was in great danger if such a remark had been made. But "Whit- 
man answered that he knew it was only a jest, though he did not 
like his position and did not intend to long retain it. "When re- 
turning from that trip, after receiving the deepest warning Mc- 
Kinlay could give, Dr. "Whitman met a company of emigrants on 
the way down to The Dalles and was invited to talk to them over 
the evening camp fire. He did so, and Judge Grim remembers 
well that he spoke very plainly of his danger among the Cayuses 
and said it was his intention to remove before many months. 

A TREACHEROUS VILLAIN. 

Joe Lewis was employed by Dr. Whitman as an act of kind- 
ness, and was therefore about the house and with the family. So 
the Indians found it convenient to beUeve the various stories he 
told them of what he saw and overheard. It is not easier to ima- 
gine a blacker soul than this wretch possessed, and less easy to 
depict in words the vileness and blackness of the treachery and 
falsehoods he proved capable of. He had been the recipient of 
kind treatment during illness, and when able to work was furnish- 
ed employment. All the instincts of common humanity would 
have been roused to appreciate this kindness, but Joe Lewis had 
no such capacity. He was in a position to do the greatest possible 
harm. As an inmate of the mission house he was privileged to 
hear the ordinary conversation that occurred there. As a half- 



Mission Life among the Indians. 197 

breed Indian he could and did ingratiate himself with the Cayuses 
and obtained not only their confidence, but a certain power over 
their minds that came from his acquired abilities among the Whites. 
Lewis insidiously repeated to these credulous and prejudiced be- 
ings who could not hear a story they were not willing to believe, 
conversations that he pretended to have overheard in the doctor's 
house. It was a time of terrible trial among them all. At the 
mission there was a hospital of sick patients and many of the 
Cayuses were sick ; thirty had died and the voice of lamentation 
and mourning was all around them. 

CAYUSES IN COUNCIL. 

After the massacre occun*ed, Gov. Ogden, of the H. B. com- 
pany, came up in the interest of humanity to secure the safety 
and return of the numerous captives held by the Cayuses. Before 
his arrival on December 20th, the Cayuse murderers held a coun- 
cil at Umatilla, where Bishop Blanchet was present. He said their 
object was to prevent war, and if they had met in council before 
the massacre, most likely it would not have occurred. Several In- 
dians made speeches and explained their various complaints. The 
Chief Telan-Kaiht spoke for two hours. He recounted the killing 
of the two Nez-Perces who went east with Mr. Gray in 1837. 
(They were killed by the Sioux.) Also that the young Chief Eli- 
jah was killed by Americans in California. He claimed that as 
the Indians forgot these things so the Whites could forget the 
massacre at Waiilatpu. They sent word to Gov. Abernethy "that 
a young Indian (Joe Lewis) who understands English and who 
slept in Dr. Whitman's room, heard the doctor, his wife and Mr. 
Spalding express their desire of possessing the land and animals 
of the Indians ; that Mr. Spalding said to the doctor : ' Hurry 
giving medicine to the Indians that they may soon die;' that the 
same Indian told the Cayuses : 'If you do not kill the doctor soon 
you will all be dead before spring;' that they buried six Cayuses 
on Sunday, November 24th, and three the next day; that the 
schoolmaster, Mr. Rodgers, stated to them before he died that the 
doctor, his wife and Spalding poisoned the Indians ; that for seve- 
ral years past they had to deplore the death of their children ; 
that, according to these reports, they were led to believe that the 
Whites had undertaken to kill them all, and that these were the 
motives that led them to kill the Americans." 



198 Indian Massacre. 



THE MASSACRE, 

The morning of the massacre, matters were proceeding as 
usual at Waiilatpu, and there was no indication of unusual feel- 
ing on the part of the Cayuses. There had been numerous deaths 
among them from measles, caused greatly by their indiscretion 
and methods of treatment that made the medical advice of Dr. 
Whitman and his prescriptions of small avail. Many of the 
Whites at the mission were also in hospital, and only that native 
superstition was roused and controlled reason, they should have 
seen that they had no cause for suspicion that Joe Lewis told the 
truth when he said that he had overheard Mr. and Mrs. Whitman 
and Mr. Spalding plan their wholesale poisoning. They believed 
Whitman possessed supernatural powers, and were incensed that 
he did not exercise them for their benefit. 

Early in the afternoon of November 29, 1847, school had been 
called, an ox had been slaughtered and was being dressed at a 
little distance from the house, and quite a number of Indians 
came about the same, as was their custom when an animal was 
slaughtered and a carcass cut up. This unusual number attracted 
the attention of Dr. Whitman, but caused no alarm. The con- 
spirators assembled in this manner, with arms concealed under 
their blankets. One of them called the doctor out, complained of 
iUness and demanded medicine. When the doctor was attending 
to this man, Ta-ma-hos came behind and felled the doctor with 
two heavy blows of a tomahawk. This initiated a general butch- 
ery, and once let loose, the demoniac nature of the Cayuses had 
full sway. They killed Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, Missionary Rod- 
gers. Schoolmaster Saunders, two Sager boys, Messrs. Marsh, Kim- 
ball, Grill, Gittern, Young, and the two sick men, Bewley and 
Sales. Mrs. Whitman was the only woman slain ; the lives of 
other women and children were spared. Mr. Hall, Mr. Canfield, 
and Mr. Osborn and family, a child of Mr. Hayes, and two adopted 
children concealed themselves in the confusion and escaped in 
safety, after much suffering and anxiety, to Fort Walla Walla, 
twenty-five miles north. 

CHIEF TRADER M'BEAN'S LETTER. 

The families of Smith and Young were at the saw-mill, eight 
miles away, and were brought to the station the next day. The 
intercession of peaceable Nez-Perc6 chiefs was influential to save 
their lives. There were four men, including two grown up sons. 



Mission Life among the Indians. 199 

The Cayuses had in their hands fifty-one prisoners. The young 
men of the tribe appropriated the women and girls among their 
captives to their own lust, and to a fate worse than death. On 
arrival of the fugitives at Fort "Walla Walla, Chief Trader Mc- 
Beau sent an interpreter and man to Waiilatpu to rescue any sur- 
vivors, and forwarded letters to Fort Vancouver with a statement 
of the facts as he heard them, and wrote as follows : " Fever and 
ague have been raging here and in this vicinity, in consequence of 
which a great number of Indians have been swept away, but more 
especially at the doctor's (Whitman's) place, where he attended on 
the Indians. About thirty of the Cayuse tribe died, one after 
another. The survivors eventually believed the doctor had poi- 
soned them, in which opinion they were unfortunately confirmed 
by one of the doctor's party (Joe Lewis). As far as I have been 
able to learn this has been the sole cause of the dreadful butchery. 
In order to satisfy any doubt as to their suspicion that the doctor 
was poisoning them, it is reported that they requested the doctor 
to administer medicine to three of their friends, two of whom 
were really sick, but the third only feigning illness. All of these 
were corpses the next morning." 

GOV. DOUGLAS' ACCOUNT. 

The leaders in the massacre were Telo Kaikt, his son, Tarn 
Sucky, Esticus and Tamahos. The WaUa Walla Indians were not 
implicated. Governor Douglas wrote thus to Governor Aber- 
netliy : '' The Cayuses are the most treacherous and intractable 
of all Indian tribes in this country, and had on many former 
occasions alarmed the inmates of the mission by their tumultuous 
proceedings and ferocious threats ; but, unfortunately, these evi- 
dences of a brutal disposition were disregarded by their admirable 
pastor, and served to arm him with a firmer resolution to do them 
good. He hoped that time and instruction would produce a 
change of mind, a better state of feeling towards the mission, and 
he might have lived to see his hopes realized had not the measles 
and dysentery, following in the train of immigrants from the 
United States, made frightful ravages this year in the upper 
country, many Indians having been carried off through the vio- 
lence of the disease, and others through their own imprudence. 
The Cayuse Indians of Waiilatpu, being sufferers in this general 
calamity, were incensed against Dr. Whitman for not exercising 
his supposed supernatural power in saving their lives. They 



200 Indian Massacre. 



carried this absurdity beyond that point of folly. Their super- 
stitious minds became possessed with the horrible suspicion that 
he was giving poison to the sick instead of wholesome medicine, 
with a view of working the destruction of the tribe, their former 
cruelty probably adding strength to this suspicion. Still some of 
the more reflecting had confidence in Dr. Whitman's integrity, 
and it was agreed to test the effect of the medicines he had furn- 
ished on three of their people, one of whom was said to be in 
perfect health. They all, unfortunately, died. From that 
moment it was resolved to destroy the mission. It was immedi- 
ately after burying the remains of these three persons that they 
repaired to the mission and murdered every man found there. 
This happened at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The Indians arrived 
at the mission one after another, with their arms hid under their 
blankets. The doctor was at school with the children. The 
others were cutting up an ox they had just killed. When the 
Indians saw they were numerous enough to effect their object, 
they fell upon the poor victims, some with guns and others with 
hatchets, and their blood was soon streaming on all sides. Some 
of the Indians turned their attention towards the doctor. He received 
a pistol shot in the breast from one, and a blow on the head with 
a hatchet from another. He had still strength enough remaining 
to reach a sofa, where he threw himself down and expired. Mrs.- 
Whitman was dragged from the garret and mercilessly butchered 
at the door, Mr. Rodgers was shot after his life had been granted to 
him ; the women and children were also going to be murdered 
when a voice was raised to ask for mercy in favor of those whom 
they thought innocent, and their lives were spared. It is reported 
that a kind of deposition made by a Mr. Rodgers increased the 
fury of this savage mob. Mr. Rodgers was seized, was made to 
sit down, and then told that his life would be spared if he made a 
full discovery of Dr. Whitman's supposed treachery. That person 
then told the Indians that the doctor intended to poison them ; 
that one night when Mr. Spalding was at Waiilatpu he heard 
them say that the Indians ought to be poisoned so that the 
Americans might take possession of their lands. That the doctor 
wished to poison all the Indians at once, but that Mr. Spalding 
advised him to do it gradually. Mr. Rodgers, after this deposi- 
tion, was spared, but an Indian who was not present, having seen 
him, fired at and killed him. An American made a similar de- 
position, adding that Mrs. Whitman was an accomplice, and de- 



Mission Life among the Indians. 201 

served death as well as her husband. It appears that he con- 
cluded by saying that he would take the side of the Indians, and 
detested Americans. An Indian then put a pistol in his hand, 
and said to him, *'if you tell the truth, you must prove it by 
shooting that young American," and this wretched apostate from 
his country fired upon the young man shown to him, and laid 
him dead at his feet. It was on the evidence of that American 
that Mrs. Whitman was murdered, or she might have shared in 
the mercy extended to the other females and children." 

'' Such are the details as far as known of that disastrous 
event, and the causes which led to it. Mr. Rodgers' reported 
deposition, if correct, is unworthy of belief, having been drawn 
from him by the fear of instant death. The other American, who 
shed the blood of his own friend, must be a villain of the darkest 
dye, and ought to suffer for his aggravated crime." 

A LITTLE CRITICISM. 

In McBean's letter to Vancouver he gives the Indian version 
of their case, and alludes to Joe Lewis as '^ one of the doctor's 
party.'' The letter of Douglas calls this infamous Joe Lewis re- 
peatedly '' an American." The fact was that Joe Lewis was a 
Canadian half-breed, accidentally at the mission.. He came there 
ill and was nursed in hospital. When he recovered he was furn- 
ished work. All the tenor of Mr. Douglas' letter is unfair, be- 
cause it gives the Indian version throughout. The Cayuses were 
too sharp to believe Joe Lewis' story that he was in the same room 
with Mr. Spalding and Dr. and Mrs. Whitman when they planned 
to poison the Indians. They knew better than to credit such a 
story. It is not probable that any well Indian would go up with 
two sick ones to receive medicine from Dr. Whitman and then 
take the medicine, as is related by both McBean and Douglas. 
That story is too thin for credence. The story of Mr. Rodgei*'s 
deposition and treachery to the Whitmans is not even plausible. 
All these matters the Hudson Bay Company officials repeat so 
confidently, could be easily manufactured as evidence by the 
Cayuses. Joe Lewis undoubtedly betrayed the mission, and told 
infamous lies to the Cayuses that led them to the massacre. Their 
own bad natures and the unhappy intrigue and rivalry of another 
religious party were the chief causes of the massacre. 

GOV. OGDEN TO THE RESCUE. 

On the 7th of December, Peter Skeen Ogden, associate chief 



202 Indian Massacre. 



factor of the Hudson Bay Company, with a party of sixteen men, 
left Vancouver for Walla Walla, to rescue and ransom the fifty- 
one captives held by the Cayuses. It requii-ed until the 23d to 
collect a council of the Cayuses, and then several days were spent 
in talk and arranging preliminaries. They were anxious to avoid 
war, and afraid the Americans would come in force from Western 
Oregon to punish them, and that fear was soon realized. Mr. 
Ogden would make them no promises of peace, but did arrange 
for the ransom of their prisoners on December 31. He wrote as 
follows : " I have endured many an anxious hour, and for the 
last two nights have not closed my eyes, but thanks to the 
Almighty I have succeeded. Dming the captivity of the prisoners 
they have suffered every indignity, but fortunately were well 
provided with food. I have been able to effect my object without 
compromising myself or others. It now remains with the Amer- 
ican Government to take what measure it deems most beneficial 
to restore tranquility. This, I apprehend, cannot be finally 
effected without blood flowing freely. So as not to compromise 
either party, I have made a heavy sacrifice of goods, but these, 
indeed, are of trifling value compared to the unfortunate beings I 
have rescued from the hands of these murderous wretches, and I 
am truly happy." 

It is agreeable to find one officer of that great company who 
could write in plain Anglo-Saxon, and make no haH way excuses 
for Cayuse savagery. The active interposition of the Hudson's 
Bay Company alone could have effected the noble object Governor 
Ogden so generously accomplished, and we must give Mr. Douglas 
full credit for his interest in the work ; even though we criticise 
the seeming unfairness of his relation of the massacre and at- 
tendant circumstances. 

The Nez-Perces remained peaceful, but their mission, as also 
that of Spokane, was broken up and never resumed their effi- 
ciency. All the property at Waiilatpu was destroyed, and the 
burning of Dr. Whitman's papers caused a loss to history that 
cannot be replaced. The faithful and earnest labor of many 
years was thus worse than lost. The tragic story that attaches 
to the Walla WaUa river, will remain one of the many legends of 
the past, and it is hardly possible any other can ever equal it, as 
the history of the Cayuses is almost closed. 

S. A. Clarke. 



Mission Life asiong the Indians. 203 



Indlans of Puget Sound, in 1852. 



"an inspired speculator. 

So pleased was Captain Sayward with the natural beauties of 
the country — the virginal beauties, yet unrifled by commerce— that 
he hired a canoe, with an Indian and his squaw as the propelling 
power, and set out down the Sound to Port Ludlow, a distance of 
one hundred miles from Olympia. He was in search of a mill site. 
In all these many miles there was not a white man to be seen. 
Only the Indian had 

' A lodge in this vast wilderness. 
This boundless contiguity of shade.' 

One hundred and more miles of an unbroken forest of magni- 
ficent timber, running back to the Oljonpian range some fifty or 
sixty miles ! Although used to the pine forests of the Penobscot 
in Maine and the St. John in New Brunswick, the sight of so 
much unclaimed ligneous wealth affected our speculator's brain a 
trifle, and he could scarcely contain himseK. ' My God ! what a 
country,' he exclaimed, rising in the canoe at the same time, to the 
imminent danger of an upset. 'I'd like to turn all the people of 
the State of Maine in here, each man carrjdng a naiTOw axe.' 
With arms extended and eyes dilated, Sayward gave the Indians 
the impression that they had a crazy man for a passenger, and ex- 
changing a few words they rested on their paddles. But he soon 
got over his ecstasy and bade them go to work again. Simple 
savages ! Accustomed to look from Nature up to Nature's God, 
they did not know they were introducing to these magnificent 
scenes the pioneer of a race that only looked from Nature to a 
market. 

the indans on the sound. 

The site was chosen at Port Ludlow and the mill erected in 
March, 1853, the machinery for which was made by the brothers 
James and Peter Donahue, then in the foundry business in San 
Francisco. The Captain remained at the Sound till 1858. There 
were about 300 Chimicum and Clallam Indians on the site Sayward 
selected, but they gave no trouble. They moved away quietly 
when requested, especially as they were promised all the lumber 
they needed to build more substantial huts than those to which 
they had been accustomed. The testimony of Captain Sayward 
is interesting as to the habits and disposition of the Sound Indians 



204 Indian Massacre. 



at this early period, before the Whites came in such numbers as 
to impinge upon their freedom and narrow hunting grounds, 
causing the famous war of 1855—56, when the redskins of Wash- 
ington Territory held a grand powwow to consider the advisability 
of driving all the white invaders into the sea. At that time Gen- 
eral I. I. Stevens — afterwards killed at Ball's Bluff with Colonel 
Baker — ^was Governor of the Territory, and McClellan was on his 
staff. General (then Lieutenant) Grant was in the field fighting 
the Indians, and so was Lieutenant Scott, son of Dr. Scott, long 
pastor of Calvary Church, in this city. But this is a digression. 
Captain Sayward had no trouble with the Indians. He employed 
a great many in and about the mill, and always found them in- 
dustrious and trvistworthy. They were singularly tenacious in 
fulfilling a trust. Often, when the supply of whiskey ran short — 
for it is next to impossible that a saw-mill can be run without the 
" Kentucky brew " — he would send a couple of his Indians with 
money to Olympia, by canoe, to get a barrel. This is about as 
severe a test as can be given an Indian. But they brought the 
whiskey home and delivered it intact. It is true, that if the Cap- 
tain's back was turned, after the trust was fulfilled, they would not 
hesitate to steal the liquor. They had but dim ideas of the law of 
meum and tuum. But they never broke their faith, no matter how 
strong the temptation, when intrusted with a mission. In the 
subsequent troubles, when the life of every white man on the 
Sound was in danger, Captain Sayward found the benefit of his 
kindness and confidence in the Indians during his early intercourse 
with them. The hostiles never menaced him, and his property re- 
mained undisturbed. In his opinion, so far as concerns the In- 
dians who came under his immediate observation in his experiences 
on the north-west coast, the poet spoke as much truth as poetry, 
when he said : 

I love the Indian ; ere the white man came 
And taught him vice and infamy and shame, 
His soul was noble. In the sun he saw 
His God, and worshipped him with trembling awe. 

RELIGIOUS PECULIARITIES. 

And this poetic expression leads naturally to the fact that the 
Sound Indians used to be very religious, in their way ; religion 
being defined as the observance of certain forms, whether Christian 
or pagan. Certainly, the Chimicums and Clallams, simple sons of 



Mission Life among the Indians. 205 

the forest and the sea, had their time pretty well divided between 
providing for their physical wants and worshipping deities, seen 
and unseen. The moon in its twelve changes represented to the 
Indian twelve gods, and, when it was full-orbed, a grand festival 
was held in honor of the deity of that particular month. The 
annual festival was in honor of the sun, that luminary being 
dignified by the name, in the Chinook jargon, ' Hyas tyee Tema- 
nowos,' or the god of all, the god of gods. At these festivals, 
monthly as well as annual, all the Indians on the Sound gathered; 
there were thousands in 1852, where there are hundreds now. 
Each, squaws as well as bucks, was provided with a piece of split 
log called in the Eastern prairie States ' puncheon.' It was un- 
dressed and full of splinters. Seated in a circle, the size of which 
depended on the number of worshippers present, they waited in 
silence for the rising of Luna — to these savages a god, to the 
pagans of old a goddess. As soon as the silver disk showed above 
the horizon, the chief, or leader of the ceremonies, led off with a 
short, weird chant, which was taken up by the whole assemblage, 
until, from the exact time kept by beating on the 'puncheons,' a 
kind of rhythm resulted — not exactly as harmonious as that de- 
scribed by Milton, when he said of the heavenly host that they 

' Sang hallelujahs as the sound of seas,' 
but a rude chorus, rising A\dth each repetition till the eighth was 
reached, and then da cajxj. Some of the notes were drawn out like 
the wail of a banshee, and others dropped on the ear like the stac- 
cato of musketry fire. It is impossible to describe the effect pro- 
duced by this chant as it rang through the solemn aisles of the 
stately forest, while the lapping waves (their circle was always 
formed on the seashore) at the feet of the dusky singers mui-mur- 
ed a subdued accompaniment. This kind of worship was a test of 
endurance. All night long it was sustained, all the next day, the 
next night and the day following, sometimes — no food passing the 
Indians' lips in the meantime — until one or more of the number 
were used up. 

THE NEW BIRTH. 

It was at the grand annual festival of the Sun, held at Clal- 
lam Bay, that this interesting ceremony was witnessed. There 
were thousands of Indians present, and the chanting had lasted 
for two days, when one of the number succumbed to sheer ex- 
haustion, falling supine and apparently lifeless. Then the chant 



206 Indian Massacee. 



ceased and Tie was taken to tlie sweat-house. After undergoing a 
hot air bath for some fifteen minutes, he was rolled in a blanket, 
and put on a shelf to dry. He remained in this state for hours, 
sometimes days — in fact it was doubtful if he could revive. 
From tests made, the cataleptic redskin was quite insensible to 
pain. One of the Indians, who spoke a little English, was asked: 

" Does the man ever die ? " 

" Sometimes," he replied ; " sometimes the spirit lose his way 
and cannot come back. Then Indian die." 

The present subject, when he did recover consciousness, was 
led forth by his friends to a position in the circle near the chief. 
And now another interesting part of the ceremonies began. The 
restored Indian looked about him for a while in a dazed sort of 
way, and presently spoke, at first in a low tone, raising his voice 
by degrees. There was a reverential hush throughout the 
circle, and every head was bent, eager to catch the words of the 
speaker. He was considered the favorite of the god of the month, 
and the communication he had to make was given him while he 
lay unconscious. Often his speech lasted an hour, and it was 
generally an exhortation or tribal lesson to his fellows on their 
simple duties, and whether the god was pleased or displeased with 
their conduct. As soon as he had ceased he commenced to part 
with his worldly possessions. To one he gave his canoe, to another 
his Hudson Bay Company gun or his bow and arrows, to another 
his wickiup, to a fourth his cooking utensils, his horses, etc. At 
last, stripped of all his goods, he stood with only the old blanket 
covering him ; then the principal chief advanced, and, withdraw- 
ing the fastening at the throat, let this drop about the heels of 
the messenger from the unseen, and he stood before his tribe 
naked as when he first came into the world. This was the new 
birth. He was considered as born again by the ordeal through 
which he had passed, and ready to commence life once more. 
After a pause the medicine man, taking a brand new blanket, 
approached the " infant adult " and covered his nakedness, manip- 
ulating his head with every sign of affection, and crooning a song 
of rejoicing at the same time. A mighty shout went up from the 
tribe as they also welcomed the new chief — the favorite of their 
god. Such was the scene to be witnessed at Port Ludlow, or Port 
Gamble, Olympia, or some other selected spot on the Sound, before 
the white man invaded the " forests primeval." It is to be pre- 
sumed the " noble red men" are too busy nowadays attending to 



Mission Life among the Indians. 207 

the slabs and scantling of the saw-mills ; and his chants to the moon, 
if he indulge in any, are drowned by the scurr of a thousand 
circulars, converting his forests into money for the pale-face. 
There is not much romance or sentiment, Indian or other, about a 
saw-miU. 

THE squaws' lecture. 

There was another curious practice among the Indians on 
the Sound in the early days. It was the lecture or sermon that, 
at stated periods, was delivered exclusively to the Indian women. 
An important member of the tribe, the big chief or the medicine 
man, would select a promontory or island remote from the main- 
land, perhaps in the vicinity of Port Ludlow, and paddle himself 
there, solitary and alone, on a fine day. Soon all the squaws 
would be seen following him, paddling vigorously toward the 
common point. No bucks were among them ; they aU remained 
on the mainland. The preacher, instructor, exhorter, or whatever 
he was, often stood in the water up to his knees for a full hour 
or more while he delivered his discoui-se ; but the Indian maidens 
a id squaws gathered as close around him as their canoes would 
permit, so as to catch every word that fell from his lips. Savona- 
rola was never more in earnest than this dusky preacher ; his 
face and action showed he realized the importance of his k. wor 
He was supposed to be instructing the women as to their proper 
duties in their savage life ; but whatever he said, they were eager 
to hear it all. There was no noise save the occasional chafing 
of one canoe against another as they moved with the slight swell 
of the water. It is an exciting spectacle to see the dusky women, 
when the service was over, start in an emulative race for the 
mainland, their dark sinewy arms plying the flashing paddle as 
the light canoe cut swiftly the placid waters of the Sound, until 
with laughing banter the prows touched the shore and they re- 
joined the bucks, who were idly awaiting them. 

Too grateful for the blessing lent 
Of simple tastes and mind content." » 

Geo. E. Barnes. 



Indians of Puget Sound and Columbia Kiver, in 1856. 

General "Wool sent Keyes' company over to Steilacoom during 
the following week, where he found the inhabitants in a wild state 



208 Indian Massacre. 



of alarm, as many families had been murdered by the Indians. On 
the fourth of December, Lieutenant Slaughter was killed by the 
Klickitat Indians, headed by the famous chief Kanaskat. 

DEATH OF KANASKAT. 

On the morning of the 25th of February, 1856, at Lemon's 
prairie, about nine miles above Tacoma, on the PuyaUup, Ser- 
geant Newton posted a private named Kehl and two others as a 
picket guard of Keyes' company. The cooks had already lighted 
the fires, and the watchful soldier saw a gleam of light reflected 
from a rifle barrel about a hundred yards up the trail beyond the 
bend. Then he saw five Indians in single file creeping stealthily 
down the hill, the one in front waving his hand backward to 
caution his followers. Kehl waited till the leader was nearly 
abreast of him, and then fired, when the great chief Kanaskat 
fell, shot through the spine, which paralized his legs, but his 
voice and arms were not affected. " At the report of Kehl's shot," 
writes General Keyes, " I ran out to the bridge, where I heard 
Sergeant Newton crying out, ' We've got an Indian.' " It took 
two soldiers to hold him as he tried to draw a knife, and as 
they dragged him across the bridge he continued to call out in a 
language I did not understand. Some one came who recognized 
the rounded Indian, and exclaimed, " Kanaskat." " Nawitka ! " 
said he with tremendous energy, his voice rising to a scream — 
" Kanaskat - Tyee — mameloose nika mika mameloose Bostons." 
He added, " My heart is wicked to the Whites, and always will be, 
so you had better kill me." Then he began to call out in his 
native tongue which none of us could understand. He appeared 
to be yelling for his comrades, and two shots were fired from the 
pickets on the hill when Corporal O'Shaughnessy, who was stand- 
ing by, placed his rifle close to the chief's temple and blew a hole 
through his head, scattering the brains about. Regarding the 
carcass of the dead chief as that of an unclean animal which men 
hunt for the love of havoc, we left it in the field unburied, and 
went on our way to fight his people. The death of their most 
warlike chief and the decisive victory we achieved, dismayed the 
redskins, and thereafter their energies were exerted to avoid 
battles with the regulars, though they afterwards fought with the 
volunteers. We hunted them almost night and day, over liiU and 
dale, and through the densest thickets. It rained more than half 
the time, and the influence of Mount Rainier and its vast covering 



li 



Mission Life among the Indians. 209 

of eternal snow upon the temperature made the nights excessively 
cold. Such was our liability to surprise that we were obliged to 
be ready to fight at all times. The hardships of that campaign, in 
which the pluck of Kautz, Mendell, Sukely, and others was tested, 
caused us later to regard the "Wilderness battles as recreation. 

In the Indian war of 1856 Lieutenant Sheridan served under 
Col. George Wright of the Ninth Infantry, whom he describes as 
an able officer. In this campaign he captured thirteen Cascade 
Indians, nine of whom were afterwards hanged for their participa- 
tion in the massacre at the ' blockhouse.' 

In illustration of the insane hatred of the Indians which per- 
vaded the people of Oregon at this time, Sheridan mentions the 
hanging in cold blood of the family of a friendly Chinook chief, 
Spencer, the interpreter of Col. "Wright. His wife, two young 
boys, three girls and a baby were hanged by some white bar- 
barians. The babe was strangled by means of a red silk hand- 
kerchief taken from the neck of its mother. These poor creatures 
were killed in the spirit of aimless revenge by citizens who knew 
that their victims were the family of a notoriously friendly and 
peaceable chief, who had nothing to do with the ' Block House 
Massacre.' Spencers family had walked into the settlement under 
the protection of a friendly alliance, and Sheridan declares that 
t'his wholesale murder of innocent and helpless victims was the 
most dastardly and revolting crime he ever knew to be committed 
by "Whites. 

Preserving the Indian in California. 

A gentleman exi^lains the real cause of the recent Indian troubles at Mono 
Lake, California, 1889. 

"A few days since a San Francisco disijatch stated that Indians in 
Mono county, California, bad killed a settler and three Italians, and that 
trouble Avas feared, and Governor Waterman had been asked to send 
troops there. 

A gentleman who has resided for several j-ears in Mono county, in the 
Bodie section, and in the ^•icinity of Mono lake, has lately arrived here £*id 
gives an account of the origin of the trouble •ftith the Indians, -which goes 
to substantiate the saying of some of the old settlers of this state that 
every outbreak of the Indians has been brought on by outrages they have 
suffered at the hands of the Whites. 

The Mono lake region is a desolate, sterile section, nnich resembling 
the countiy around the Dead Sea. The waters of the lake are thoroughly 
impregnated with borax, salt and magnesia, and the only animal life found 
14 



210 Indian Massacre. 



in it is a sort of a worm, about one-f ourtli of an incli in length, resembling 
in appearance a slirimii. Tbis worm is of an oily nature, and forms, when 
blown on the sbore by tbe winds, by combining with the alkaline water a 
soapy mixture, and frequently a bank of this soai3suds several feet in de^jth 
is deijosited along the shore of the lake. 

The Piute Indians, who hve in the country around Mono lake are very 
fond of these worms or shrimps, which they call "kitcha^de" and eat 
aU they can get of them ; in fact "kitchavie " and pine nuts are their food 
staples. 

On the western shore of Mono lake hved a settler named Louis Sam- 
man. He had resided there for over twenty years, raising cattle on the 
stunted pasturage around the lake, leading a lonely life. 

Occasionally he would kill a Piute and cast the body into the alkaHne 
waters of the lake, where it would soon petrify. This fact was well kno%\Ti 
to the ^yhites residing in that sectipn, and the gentleman who gives this 
information says he has seen four of these bodies calmly rej^osing at the 
bottom of the lake. Samman's avowed intention was to use the bodies, as 
soon as they became suflSciently hardened, for hitching posts and door 
steps. 

The Indians, however, were ignorant of Samman's eccentricity, or at 
least had only heard unconfirmed stories of it. A few days before the 
killing above mentioned, a party of Piutes were fishing for " kiteha\'ie, " 
scooping them oflf the surface of the water with willow baskets. In the 
vicinity of Samman's place they saw the bodies of their murdered brethren 
lying on the gravelly bottom. 

Then the stories they had heard were confirmed. They became 
frenzied for revenge, and going to Samman's cabin took him out (he was 
alone) and shot him through the heart, carried the body into the cabin, 
laid it on the bed, and to make sure that he was dead, fired another shot 
through his brain. They then went several mUes to a place whei'e four 
Italians were and killed three of them, one escaj^ing to Bodie and alarm- 
ing the citizens, telUng them at the same time not to go out there for a few 
days, as the Indians had sworn to kill any white naan that came out. The 
Indians were very much excited, and eager to avenge the death of the 
petrified Piiites. A request was made on Governor "Waterman for arms 
and ammixnition, and he offered to send troops, but the offer was dechned. 
The request for arms and ammunition has since been countermanded, and 
things have quieted down considerably, but still the A-igilance of the peojjle 
has not relaxed. An effort to an-est the guilty Indians "wiU shortly be 
made. ' ' 

How " Civilization '' was introduced to the Natives of 
South and Central America. 

The second volume on Central America just issued, is one of 
the most interesting of H. H, Bancroft's " History of the Pacific 



Natkes of Central and South Ameuica. 211 

States." It deals mainly with a period of which the simple recital 
of its events reads like a romance. IMr. Bancroft has no sympathy 
with the Spanish method of colonization and he never neglects an 
opportunity to point out the greed and viUainy which lies imder 
the thin veneer of religious zeal in the Spanish- American con- 
querors. He also delights in laying bare the hypocrisy of the 
priestly chroniclers, who never fail to find a good excuse for the 
methods of the men who carried the cross with bloody hands 
among the ill-starred natives of Central and South America. He 
can see no redeeming qualities in Francisco Pizarro, Alvarado and 
the other Spanish conquerors, save their superb courage, which 
never faltered, even in the face of the most appalling dangers. 
He has none of that half-concealed fondness for these picturesque 
pirates which is shown by many writers. He gives the plain 
truth about them, stripped of all the glamor which the Church has 
cast over their cruelties. The single chapter devoted to Pizarro 
is an admirable review of the methods of one of the bravest and 
meanest of the great adventurers of the world. Of infamous 
origin and brutal instincts, his low cunning and unsurpassed 
courage placed him at the head of the lawless crew in Panama and 
made him surpass in Peru the crimes with which Cortez marked 
his bloody march through Mexico. Nothing in history is more 
cruel than the massacre of the natives and the capture of the Inca, 
which delivered into the hands of these freebooters the rich em- 
pire of Peru. In a half -hour 5000 defenseless Peruvians were 
butchered, without the loss of a single Spaniard. The massacre 
was precipitated by the action of the Inca, who, when the Priest 
Vicente de Valverde was urging upon him the beauties of the 
Catholic faith, flung the Bible to the earth and trampled upon it. 
The effect was similar to that which would follow a curse on the 
religion of Mohammed uttered in an Arabian mosque. As the 
author says, ''To their brutal instinct was added a spiritual 
drunkenness which took them out of the category of manhood and 
made them human fiends. We wonder how men could so beheve; 
but greater still is our wonder that men so believing coidd so be- 
have." This massacre was followed by the usual sequence — a 
forced levy on the kingdom for treasure as the ransom of the 
captured monarch; the accumidation of treasure, which is estimat- 
ed as worth $20,000,000, in one day, and finally the farcical trial 
and condemnation of the captive Inca when no more gold and sil- 
ver and precious stones could be wrung from the people. The 



212 Indian Massacre. 



trial and the death scene of the unhappy Inca are told in these 
few words, made more impressive by their bre\dty : 

The accusations and the trial would both be laughable were 
they not so diabolical. Pizarro and Almagro acted as judges. 
Among the charges were attempted insurrection, usurpation and 
putting to death the lawful sovereign, idolatry, waging unjust 
warfare, adultery, polygamy and the embezzlement of the public 
revenues since the Spaniards had taken possession of the country. 
What more cutting irony could words present of the Christian 
and civilized idea of humanity and the rights of man then enter- 
tained, than the catalogue of crimes by which this barbarian must 
unjustly die, every one of which the Spaniards themselves had 
committed in a tenfold degree since entering these dominions. 
The opinion of the soldiers was taken. It is unnecessary to say 
that the prisoner was found guilty. He was condemned to be 
burned alive in the plaza. 

At the appointed hour the royal captive, heavily cliained, was 
led forth. It was nightfall, and the torchlights threw a dismal 
glare upon the scene. By the Inca's side walked the infamous 
Father Vicente, who never ceased pouring into the unwilling ear 
of his victim his hateful consolations. Upon the funeral pile, 
Atahualpa was informed that if he would accept baptism he might 
be kindly strangled instead of burned. '' A cheap escape from 
much suffering," thought the monarch, and permitted it to be 
done. The name of Juan de Atahualpa was given him. The iron 
coUar of the garrote was then tightened, the Christians recited 
their credos over the new convert, and the spirit of the Inca hied 
away to the sun. Thus one more jewel was added to the immortal 
crown of Father Vicente de Valverde ! 

Soon after Pizarro falls in a bloody brawl, a victim to the lust 
for gold and power of the man whom he had made rich and 
powerful. He was nearly eighty years of age when he met his 
fate, yet so great was his vigor and courage that he killed five 
persons and wounded others before he was subdued. 

In the succeeding chapters are related the exploits of the 
Spanish conquerors in the various States of Central America, and 
on the Isthmus of Darien. The expeditions of Alvarado, the work 
of the ecclesiastics in Guatemala and Chiapas, of Herrera in Hon- 
duras, the raids of Drake and Oxenhun on the Isthmus, the 
descents of the buccaneers, the outrages of Morgan at Darien, and 
the exploits of other cut-throats, who dignified rapine and murder 



Natives of Central and South America. 213 

by the title of exploration — these furnish the materials for a story 
as thrilling as can be found in the pages of romance. The history 
is brought down to the close of the eighteenth century and shows, 
with its wealth of detail, the stagnation which has always marked 
the colonies of Spain. Those of the natives who objected to the 
cruel domination of the Spaniards were killed. In Guatemala 
alone Las Casas estimated the number of those who were massa- 
cred or driven to death by this brutal treatment at between four 
and five millions. The aim of the invaders was to wring the 
uttermost farthing from the natives. Some of them glossed this 
mercenary motive under religious zeal, but this did not alter its 
character. Even a man of high character like Las Casas, whose 
soul revolted at the cruelties perpetrated in the name of religion, 
was responsible for the worst curse that ever befell this continent 
— African slavery. There are absolutely no redeeming features in 
the history, except the dauntless courage and iron endurance of 
the men who ravished and depopulated a fair territory in the holy 
name of the Church. 

" Twelve years after the discovery of Hispaniola, as Columbus 
himself writes, six-sevenths of the natives were dead through ill- 
treatment." 

"Bora by the law that compels men to be, 

Bom to conditions tliey could not foresee, 

Fashioned and shaped by no will of their own, 

And helplessly into life's history thrown." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Home btiilding narrative resumed. — Improve homestead claim as I had the 
other. — The market, etc. — My herds of cattle, horses, hogs, etc. — Great 
prosperity. — EaOroads built from tide Avater ; freights, etc. — Immigra- 
tion. — Further enlargemeut of my home and business by leasing, fenc- 
ing and breaking a quarter section of school land. — Copy of lease 
and receipt for second years payment on the same. — The law and 
custom as to it. — Confirmed by Congress. — Serve as county road 
\4ewer and on first grand jury of Columbia County, and learn some- 
thing. — Road suj)ervisor of a twenty-mile district. — A re\-iew, and 
what I have learned about farming, etc. — The best economy Avhile 
" servients are at the udder." . 

FALL of 1877. — Having built an addition to our house, a 
cellar and a stable ; fenced a garden and potato field, and a 
pasture on homestead claim ; plowed most of the arable land 
on the same ; sowed it in fall wheat, and fenced it, and more, 
with a worm fence ; having a 120 acre crop under way or assured ; 
with plenty of grain, hay and straw for feed and to sell at good 
prices — barley and oats being worth one and one quarter cents 
a pound, and wheat 50 cts. a bushel at home ; eggs 20 cts., butter 
30 cts. a lb., and hay $8 a ton in the stack — not that the 
rivers going down to the sea were made free to the people, but 
on account of the large immigration — and having good herds of 
cattle, horses and hogs ; virtually out of debt, and having means 
to employ help, I was ready to further enlarge my home and 
business. 

The river freights were still virtually prohibitory, but after 
a time railroads were built, from tide water reaching into the 
different sections of this upper country ; but the rivers are to 
this day (1889) held by the secret pirates of a Mormon govern- 
ment from being an opposition, independent and free line to 
the sea. 

I here give about the average freights to 1889, from the 
Press. — 

"They now [1884] charge on up freight from twenty to forty dollars 
per ton, according as the goods Avill bear it. Anybody can see that is 
robbery on a line of 300 miles." 

"Freights from Portland [tide water] to Dayton are now [1884] 
twenty-seven to forty dollars per ton. From Dayton to this point [seat of 
Garfield county] twenty dollars more per ton is added. These rates bleed 

(214) 



Eanch Life in the West. 215 

our people to death. None but tlie best country in tlie world could 
stand -t." 

1884. — "The depression in the jirice of wheat still continues, and we 
hear of some sold as low as twenty-six cents per bushel. We see the Portland 
market price is SI. 05, just think, seventy-live cents per bushel for trans- 
portation and handhng from our county (Garfield) to Portland, river route 
almost all the way. It is shameful." "This county alone has about 
2,000,000 bushels of grain to export." [And yet people — who ougJit to he 
slaves, and they are, — kept voting the Mormons into office, and here is the 
result.] 

1889. — "The Legislature cannot well permit this bill [to open the 
river] to die of neglect, [but as usual the masons killed it.] The one great 
giievance of all Eastern Oregon [and Washington] is, and has for years 
been, the tax laid uj^on its resources by [masonic] corporations, that have 
held the key to the transportation business of that section through owning 
and operating the only jioriage facilities between the points named in 
the biU. 

True, the general government undertook measures for a rehef of this 
grievance a number of years ago, but as one aiipropriation after another 
has been swallowed up [by the gang] in the undertaking, and the most 
formidable part of the work is yet to be done, the people have naturally 
grown tired and long for some measure that furnishes rehef for themselves, 
as well as for their remote i^osterity." 

But they still voted the brethren into office, who thus stran- 
gled the country's prosperity. 

Masonry is a wide spreading tree ; its roots are like that of a 
cancer; while among its boughs numerous traitorous insects are 
harbored and concealed, and under its protecting foliage the dead- 
ly night shade of conspiracy is reared and brought to maturity. 

And the people would unite to hang outsiders for stealing but 
a few head of stock ! 

To enlarge my home and business, I accordingly commenced 
to break up the arable land on the quarter section of school 
land adjoining my place above, having improved it somewhat 
before the land was survej^ed, as before noted. 

As it was destitute of water and the ultimate cost when it 
should be sold so uncertain, all land hunters rejected it. So I 
was in no hurry about leasing it. With my experience in home- 
building I could see that if some one would take the land and 
improve it, I could then buy him out for less cost than to improve 
it myself. But nobody would have it. So the following Febru- 
ary, when other business called me to the far away county seat, 



216 



Eanch Life in the West. 



I went and leased it, as an enlargement to my liome. And here 
following is a copy of tbe lease, also of receipt for tlie second 
year's payment on the same. 



VX'citniAS llic Oo\ernincm of ihe I'niied Smut has rMertccJ wrwin lands m Wsshinston Territory fw.Sohool snd e* 
ocnoii.l puipxej, »nd. Wheiie«9. bj an aci of the Ugi»laii«<- Asseiiiblj of Washington Territory, passed Novem. 
bcr i-'d. llfBO. the' County Commissioners of the several Counties in said Territory, nrc duly aulhorited and empow. 
crcd to LEASE ur Rt.lT said lands, or any portion thereof, for n term of years i 
llwll be sold 1 -Z*^ ^^V 

Now. TiicHEvniii;, Tins I.vDK>Tf he. Made i 



until such lands 



1 executed this .he .^.^TZy of C>^^--t^t.,.>VM^ 



the Jloard of County i?omniissiol 



,f Columbia County. Washington Territory, party of, tbe 
t^T/. v2A^;^<S2^fS^;<;jg/' of ^d county and Territory of the second part, 



A D- li«7^b. 
firpi part, and i 

WiTNESsr.TH. Tbat tbe »aid party of the 6rst part, pursunnl u> aaid law, lias granted, demised, aod to farm let, and 
)>y iSfte prcsejits does Rrant, demise, and to farm let, with the said party of the second psrt. all the ccrtmti lot piece 
.or parcel vf f;inj, situate, lyin^ «i.H bcinj ijj the County of Columbia, Territory of Washinpon. Jesciibrd as folio 
V>Wi! : -^ 



(^££^Y'^^ y'i^cja^^(ieZj 



111 atoorjtiocc with the surveys ii.id i>I.'\tsf>f the United Stjics Oovcfpmcnt. with the appuriviijiices^fiir the term of.if? 
rara, fnmi the ...C^ day of :^jl^<V^tr<^^/i^(&7pr^ . lS7'^r uniifsaid tract ^ la^J shall be sold by 
It or sum of ... (/^.jZA/t^... dollars. pnyaMe in Jawfol uiuneV of tbe Cn;t«<f 
' )^<^„f.C^X'^^.:^.than<l 




ritnpelciit nutborily. Jt 111? onnaal rent 

nnciCin tbe Treasurer of said county, aimuallj in' ad 



Ibo ...ff.<''ti«yiif K/'.-A^^'^^'.^^'t\ and every y^r. 

,l*ro*idcd ilw.-tys. noTerttielcss, thai if ttic rent iibo7c rosorred or any portion thcroul. ttiall be In trrc.ini uf ilnpSId ok 
Qit^ day of pAyuicnt when the «anie ought lo bo paid lu ■foresBid ; or if default be tutdc in iinj nf (lio covcniiitit herein 
[ewntnincd, ot) the purt or bchtiir uf fuid party jf the second purr, hia executors, ndiiiinlAtrators or aKiii;.'n9, Oi be paid, kepi 
tend ptirforuicd. ihcii it shall b: lawful for the Said C .unty Uonrnii-^i'.ncra of ^mJ Cwuiity Xn rL-enicr the wiid piemiws, 
iwiiliMui any Ifgnl process or wnrrotitntlier thnn \* heroin contained, and lo rcuiave, or c;msc to be rcnrovcd, all persons 
jhcrffroin. / 



And thf said pitrty of tbe second p3rt;'3ae8'ftcre,by covennnr. promise nud ap^e to pny ili« said rent at the time and 
hi tliv manner bercinbeforc specified, nnd not K"* let or underlet the whole or any pjrt of &»id preuii&e!i without the writ* 
;tCtt' consent of the Board of County Comniissinncrs, and shall and will, at hia own proper c"st end charges, pay all such 
tascs nnd assessments whatever, as sh.-ilt or may. during ibo said term hereby granted, be charged, sssCMed or imposed 
Upon the said promises > i>Dd not to cut or defttroy iiny litober growing upon said Undn, during said teriu. the name heing 
hfrrhi; rr*Tvfil Ay the iai<t party />/ the/n/ part ; and agreeing aUo that nil the fcncio;; and utiicr iniprnvturenU put 
HDOn 9nid land, duriit;^ said term, shall attach to and become a part of the realty nt the expiration uf n.iid term. 

And that oil the la.nt dny of tho said term, or other sooner determination of iho cniate heicby grained, tbe said party 
vf the second part, hl^ exeeators, adrainiiRrators and afwigns. shall and will peaceably ntid quietly, Kave, surrender and 
yield up unto the said party of the 6rst part, alt and Hiogular tho said pminiseA together with tho appurtenances. 



And the »id party of the first p«rt do«s hereby govcftant, prnmise and afjree, that the avid party of the aerond pari, 
paying the said rent, and performing the covonanu nfuresutd. shall aod iDsy peocerbly and quic'ly hsve, hold and enjoy 
ih* said premiic^ for the term aforesaid. 

Iti WjTNEl>S Whereof, the said parties have hcrcanto set their hands afid seals,' the dsy and year fint above written 

Sigoed sealed and delivered In preaeocc of \ 

J/^(^..MC^... X^^6>.^^ 

School Land Lease. 

(Reduced to one half of tlio oilglnal size.) 





(217) 



2] 8 Eanch Life in the West. 

" The organic act of Congress declares tliat 'all laws passed by the legis- 
lative Assembly and Governor of ' Washington territory, shall be submitted 
to Congress, and, if disaj^proved, shall be null and of no effect." 

"The act of 1867, making the bi-annual sessions of the legislature be- 
gin two months earher in the odd year, was not disapproved by Congress, 
but by vii'tue of the ride, 'silence gives assent,' teas approved." 

And the legislature henceforth acted accordingly — as 
though the act had been formally approved. As did the courts 
and people as to the other acts of the legislature. It teas and 
is the universal custom/or laics, to be in force until congress, or the 
courts, or the legislature abrogates them. And so it was with this 
school-land act. It was forthwith made available and largely 
availed of. And on its being questioned, as all laws are for a 
price, the U. S. Attorney General wrote as follows, to the terri- 
torial Delegate in Congress. 

j Department of Justice. 
I Washington, June 7th, 1880. 

Sib: 

It seems to me ujion a careful reading of the laAV referred to, that the 
commissioners themselves, as representing the county, are invested with 
power to protect the interests of the county in sections 16 and 36, which 
were reserv^ed by Congress for the benefit of the common schools therein. 

I infer this from the authority given them, to locate other lands in case 
sections 16 and 36 are occupied by actual settlers prior to the survey there- 
of. Under this authority to locate, they may take possession, and so of 
sections 16 and 36, if not occupied by actual settlers prior to the survey 
thereof. 

The statute gives to the territory the title and the right of possession, 
and the proper rej^resentatives of the tenitoiy who for this jjurjiose are, 
I presume, the county commissioners, may institute proceedings to defend 
that possession, or to recover it as against trespassers. 
Very resijectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

Chas. Devens, 

Attorney General." 

From the Press. — "W at.t.a WaujA, Oct. 14th, 1882. For the informa- 
tion of "Inquirer" it is stated that many years ago the legislature of Wash- 
ington territory, by solemn enactment, authoiized the commissioners of the 
different counties to lease school lands, the rents to be added to the school 
fund of the county wherein the lands were situated. Does "Inquirer" 
wish to decrease the school fund by abohshing the practice ? If so he 
must either appeal to the legislature to repeal the law, or induce a court of 
comjietent jurisdiction to declare the act as unauthorized." 



Kanch Life in the West. 219 

1885. — "The commissioners of King county, [Western Washington] 
are doing considerable business in tlie way of leasing school lands. These 
lands are leased in tracts of IGO acres, or less, at ten dollars a year for each 
tract, the leasea running for six years. [Lurking brethren could, and did 
lease, irJ/ole . fed ions and held them]. It is impossible to sell these lands 
before the Territory becomes a State. They, however, are in great request, 
and the leases are eagerly sought, it behig understood that when the lands 
are sold, the occupants shall have the first right to purchase at the ap- 
praised price. The county is entitled to 75,000 acres, and if all leased 
even at the low price of ten dollars a year, a revenue Avould thereby be 
secured of ^5000 or more. With no effort made in the past, $450 a year is 
now obtained in this way. The school lands of King county will be worth 
millions of dollars in time to come." 

In 1888 there were 5000 such leases as mine held, and 
Congress formally approved the same as follows : — 

" Washington Territory School Lands. 

The following is an act of Congress ' ' for the rehef of certain settlers 
upon the school lands of Washington temtory : " 

Whereas, Sections 16 and 36 of each township of land in Washington 
territory was reserved unto that territory for school piirposes ; and 

Whereas, On December 2, 1869, the legislative assembly of that 
territory, by an act duly passed, authorized the county commissioners of 
the several counties in that territory to lease said lands for a term of years 
not exceeding six years, the money received therefore being placed in the 
school fund ; and 

Whereas, The lands so leased are greatly enhanced in value by the 
cultivation thereof, and the lessees thereof have made valuable improve- 
ments thereon and incurred large expense in reducing siich land to a state 
of cultivation, and vnH. incur much loss if they are caused to abandon their 
said improvements and cultivations ; and 

Whereas, The vaUdity of the said leases is questioned ; therefore, 

Be it enacted, etc. , That the action of the county commissioners of the 
several counties of Wasliington territory under the authority supposed to 
reside in the act of the legislative assembly of said territory of December 
2, 1869, entitled, "an act to provide for the leasing of school land in Wash- 
ington territory," when had in conformity to said act, be, and the same 
hereby is, confirmed, and that said act be, and the same is hereby, vali- 
dated and confirmed. 

Approved, August 6, 1888." 

I spent part of the following months of February and 
IMarch, 1878, in viewing out and locating county roads in the 
Asotin country, being appointed with two others by the board 
of county commissioners to act in that cajjacity. 



220 Kanch Life in the West. 

Then I hired two men to make rails at twenty dollars per 
thousand, one to help farm and break prairie on the school 
land claim at thirty dollars a month, and one to attend to the 
cows, hogs, chickens, and assist about the house. 

Was road supervisor of this district, then over 20x20 miles 
in extent. That spring we got the through road to Dayton 
and Lewiston opened all the way for the first. 

In June I served on the grand jury of the first court 
session ever held in Coluinbia county ; wherein I experienced 
that it is an easy matter to indict an outsider, while worse 
criminals (being in a charitable order) are secure against out- 
raged justice. 

Then, until harvest, I was engaged mostly in hauling over 
10,000 rails from the mountains and fencing the school land I 
had leased and partly broke out. Some of the rails I bought 
at forty dollars per thousand, delivered on the ground. 

"Book" or Greeley farming is good in its place, but would 
not pay here ; and he who was educated in such a school and 
was bigoted, or could not bend to adverse circumstances or ex- 
ceptions to accepted general rules could do a thing in but one 
way, would break up very quick or fail in making anything to 
break. There are circumstances in which it is the best econ- 
omy for the settler to raise wheat, horses, hogs and calves 
together in the same field (though frequently done when not 
the best economy) and to raise potatoes by dropping the seed 
as he plows the ground, run over it with a harrow, let them go 
until fall, and then plow them up or turn the hogs in to harvest 
them. Sometimes good cultivation of a crop pays best, and 
then again no culture at all is the best econom}'. I can raise 
more truck with a team and plow than alone with a hoe. 
Horse flesh is cheaper than that of a man — if he be a man — 
and is more pleasant to wear off. I can ride over more ground 
than I can walk over. A farmer and his family should not be 
harder worked or fed than his cattle, and tlieij should have 
leisure and plenty that is good, too. I have read expert testi- 
mony in agricultural papers and books until — like reading law 
books — I did not know anything for certain. I have experi- 
mented and closely observed in every branch and phase of 
work I ever pursued. Have plowed bodies of land up to the 



Kanch Life in the West. 221 

beam, and adjoining it have skinned the ground and skipped a 
foot at eveiy furrow and turn for acres together. Have rolled 
grain before it was up, and when it was six to eight inches 
high with a heavy four-horse roller (which I had read Avould 
even kill Canadian thistles). Have rolled it in the dust ; in 
the mire ; and have not rolled it at all. Have sown it on foot, 
on horseback and out of a wagon ; in the spring, summer, fall 
and winter time ; and have just let it volunteer from the last 
crop. Have harvested it with cradle and rake; with reaper; 
header, and have turned stock in to do it. Have threshed with 
machine ; tramped it out with a bunch of horses, and have 
pounded it out with a club. And in potatoes and other truck have 
experimented as widely, and in their different varieties, and in 
each and every case have been both ridiculed and flattered by 
others. Have broke horses under the saddle; to the wasrou, 
plow, harrow, and have more frequently just went to work with 
them without any breaking; and have fed them on patent 
medicine, wheat, — until I foundered four at a time, until they 
learned better and could safely eat it from a pile on the ground, 
and have let them get their living on the range. 

Have killed hogs, planted gardens, and layed worm fence 
in all stages of the moon — in sunshine, moonshine, and in the 
shade. Have put salt and pepper in cows' tails to cure the 
" hollow horn," and have cut off pigs tails to make them 
weigh 411 pounds with but little feed. Have worked sixteen 
hours a day, and have followed the sensible eight hour system, of 
eight hours for ivorh, eight hours for sleep, and eight hours for re- 
creation and study. 

And I have learned that the one of any of these ways is 
the best for the farmer, that is the easiest. Just so long as it 
is fixed that he is to get but a hard living anyway, and the 
profits of his toil goes to enrich mystic gangs of "ser2)ents at the 
udder." 



CHAPTER XV. 

Land jumping. — First serious case in the "France settlement." — Our 
gi-aveyard started. — The "iioor man's friend." — Street fight with a 
jumper. — "Hurrah for Whetstone Hollow !" — Pulihc sentiment as to 
such cases. — When the courts and press stand in with the peoj^le, and 
when against them. — Land sharks. — How petty thieves are shot down 
with impunity. — Home wreckers. — How my prosjjerity made me an 
object of envy and ravage. — A murderous conspiracy by gentlemen 
Anth gTeat influence at coui-t to jump my j^re-emption and school-land 
portions of my well earned, improved and stocked home. — The lying 
lire texts that were invented and used as a bhnd. — Jumji all the water 
on my place. — "If you want any water, dig for it ! " — Wanted to get 
me into the gang's court. — How I repossessed my own. — " W^ill fix you 
by helping H — jump jonv school land ! " — How I had befriended 
them. — "Damned be he who first cries hold: enoiigh!" — Tries to 
drive me off with a gun. — And we get better acquainted ; get friendly, 
and he agrees to quit. — How I was performing my homage against a 
lurking foe. — His object. — Is set to resume the conflict. — "An outrage 
for one man to own all the land and the water, too! " — "Will settle it AAdth 
an ounce of lead ! " etc. — Boasts of his bacldng and infliience. — "We 
will make it hot as hell for you now." — "I have taken your school 
land, E — , your pre-emption, and by G-d ! we will soon have a man 
on your homestead ! " — A man loans me his pistol for defense, and then 
eggs on the jumper. — The lying gang. — "But truth shall conquer at 
the last." — Jumper's many Avicked threats. — Try to have him bound 
over to keej? the peace. — My instructions from. the peace officer. — "Be 
prej^ared to defend yourself and sow the ground." — He loans me seed 
for the purpose. — "There comes [Jumper] now with a gun !" — "Let 
us go oiTt and see what he is going to do with it ! " — "I don't care a 
damn what he does with it ! " — How he followed me around the field 
with a cocked carbine in both hands. — Quits and has a secret confer- 
ence. — "I ask you as a friend and neighbor to quit soA\-ing wheat and 
leave the field, for there is going to be trouble ! " — "Look out for him 
now ! " — Belches out at the end of a stream of profanity, "turn back ! 
leave the field ! and don't come back nary time ! " — "I will fix you ! " 
a'iick, bang! "1 10111 kill yoii!" crack, haiuj ! — I return the fire in quick 
succession, thus saving my life. — Posit we, certain, incontrovertible 
proof as to the same. — How he missed me by a scratch and killed the 
horse. — "There, France is shot!" — The lying and perjured gang. — - 
" Wliere logic is inverted and wrong is called right." — Am charged 
with murder ! — The would-be assassin, home ravager and ravislier is 
shielded, venerated and revenged by his gang. — "If by this means we 
can fux-ther our cause, the private assassin deserves our applause." — 

(222) 



I 



Shanghaied to the Gang's BAbTiLE. 223 

Am thrown into jail without a hearing. — Held in jail nearly ten months 
begging and demanding a trial. — Can never get either a trial or hear- 
ing. — "Virtue distressed " could get no protection here. — Am betrayed, 
sold and given away. — "His glories lost, his cause betrayed!" — 
Shanghaied to the gang's bastile in double irons. — "Oh! 'twas (oo 
much, ioo dreadfid to endure ! " — " He jests at scars that never felt a 
•wound ! " — "Is this then" thought the youth, "is this the way to free 
man's spirit from the deadening sway of worldly sloth ; to teach him 
while he lives, to know no bliss but that which \drtue gives?" — 
Examples of other cases, and what the law is. — My case as established 
and the law, etc., as to the same. 

• "But pleasures are like pojjpies sjiread, 
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed; 
Or hke the snow fall in the idver, 
A moment white — then melts forever; 
Or hke the borealis race. 
That flit ere you can point their place; 
Or hke the rainbow's lovely fonn 
Evanishing amid the storm." — Burns. 

1 HE first serious land jumping in the " France Settlement " 
was that of a man who jumped a claim belonging to Miss B — , 
1878. In moving on to it, the jumper left a wagon tire, leaning 
against some other traps, on an elevation above the house ; the 
tire got started, and bounding into the door crushed a hole into 
the head of a two or three year old child, playing by its 
mother's side. Yet, it lingered until a doctor arrived and sewed 
up the scalp, the brain oozing out meanwhile. Oh, what a 
piteous sight ! 

The doctor prided himself on being above all other doctors 
" the poor man's friend," and therefore charged only $150 for 
his trip of 30 miles and " surgical operation." 

Thus was our graveyard started. 

Then the jumper was driven from the place, though he 
was technically right. 

About this time there was also an attempt at claim jump- 
ing near Dayton. A man had filed on a claim and then, having 
sold it before proving up, erroneously thought he could there- 
fore legally file the same right on another claim. After he had 
lived on and improved this other claim, a man doing business 
in town filed a contest at the land office and was about to win 



224 Defending my Life and Home. 

the place by law. So many of the neighbors turned out, 
destroyed with fire the lumber he had put on the place for a 
house, and, armed with shot guns and pistols, went hunting for 
him in a body to the county seat, where they challenged the 
jumper out of his house of business and shot him down in the 
street, and, after he was down, amid shouts of " hurrah for 
Whetstone Hollow ! " 

There was not even an arrest made, nor any indictment 
found, as the jumper was not a member of the gang. 

One of the shooters rested his pistol on his arm and, as he 
smoked his pipe, blazed away at the lone man. This shooter 
was then elected a county commissioner. 

These sample cases prove that the sentiment and judge- 
ment of the people were dead against land jumpers, even when 
they were technically right. And that the courts stood in 
against them, when they did not belong to the gang. Indeed, 
the homebuilders were having such a hard time of it, that one 
could not be convicted of any crime for killing a man who was 
trying to rob him of his home or any part of it — even if the 
jumper was technically right — unless the homebuilder was be- 
trayed, sold, or given away by his lawyers, and the jury packed 
against him. Were it otherwise, the laws and courts would be 
worked so, as to rob every homebuilder of his home ; for there 
is always a technicality, a clerical " error," or something hidden 
to be dug up, and sustained by the court, ivhen the mystic sign is 
given. 

Condensed from the Press. — "The land sharks are jubilant over [a -sdctory] 
as it is tlie commencement of the harvest they expect to gather. But the 
settlers on the lands are organized, and any of their creatures whom they 
will incite to locate, will be met with a long rope and a short shift. The 
Statesman AviU side with the farmers against both the raih-oad and the land 
jumi^ers." 

"That the ring of land sharks exists in this city [Walla Walla] and 
have no earthly way of making a hving, except by blackmaihng settlers on 
the pubhc lands, by reason of their knowledge of the land laws and their 
access to the records of the land office, is an undoubted fact. By black- 
mailing the settlers and bulldozing the laud officers they keep everybody 
in a state of ten-or. We know, for a fact, of contests being inaugurated 
for no other ijurjiose than forcing the original locator to buy the gang off." 

"Mr. Arthurs is a native of Tennessee, and is a true and consistent 
democrat, and it would not be safe for any man to attempt to locate on his 



Shanghaied to the Gang's Bastile. 225 

domain, even if it be forfeited, for lie is one of the many who have sworn, 
that no jumper will ever attempt a similar game a second time." 

"Indeed, in all new and sparsely settled sections of this great repub- 
lic the law is interj^reted to suit the sentiment of the community. If a man 
jumps a piece of land, held rightfully by a neighbor, he knows that he is 
loolcing directly into the miizzle of a loaded Winchester, which is hable to 
go off any moment. It all depends on the nerve of the injured party. If 
the gun does go off, the coroner and his neighbors gather together, talk the 
matter over, and render a verdict of justifiable homicide. This is why M — , 
who shot and killed young L — last week, is a free and much respected 
citizen to-day." 

It is popular also, to shoot down harmless petty thieves, 
even in town, when they don't belong to the gang. 

"C — , in whose back P — poured a dose of shot, is still ahve in the 
city jail. Some of the shot lodged in the lungs, and the spine must cer- 
tainly be injured. There is httle, if any, sympathy expressed for the 
wretch, and his death would not increase it. It is well kno\vn that in 
nearly every house in the city fire-arms are kept expressly for burglars, 
and it is only because peoj^le do not wake up quick enough, that more 
house breakers are not shot." 

Afterwards. — "C — , the burglar, who was so prettily pepjiered by P- 
a few weeks since, was yesterday sentenced to nine years in the peniten- 
tiary." 

A homebuilder knows at the outset enough to calculate on 
opposition from home-wreckers ; he also knows that the chief 
fundamental principle and object of good government is not to 
rob and murder him, but to encourage, uphold, protect, defend 
and venerate the true homebuilder ; and that this is vouch- 
safed and vowed by all civilized governments on the earth. 
And he who violates this solemn vow is a traitor and a thief. 

Here is a sentiment, that is proudly proclaimed. 

" The poorest man may in his own cottage home bid defiance 
to all the force of the crown. It may be frail, its roof may shake, 
the wind may blow through it, the storms may enter, the rain 
may enter, — but the King of England cannot enter ! All his forces 
dare not cross the threshold ! ! " 

In the spring of 1878, Mr. E — and other charitable breth- 
ren located a steam saw-mill a mile from my place, knowing 
there would be no accessible water for their use during the 
most of the year, except it be at my place. Digging for water 
had proved a failure thereabouts, and the settlers were watering 
15 



226 Defending my Liee and Home. 

their stock at and liauling water from my place for domestic 
use. This demand with my various herds of stock and others 
that were transient, was about equal to the supply of my 
springs. Mr. E — was fully informed as to this matter before 
he located the mill, but turned a deaf ear; evidently ha^ang 
conspired at the outset to intrigue, tramp or shoot me down, 
and jump my place. 

The fact that I had earned this part of my home by hard 
and persistent toil, had paid for it, and had an undisputed U. 
S. Patent for the same, was spurned with charitable (?) con- 
tempt, as having such influence at court as would shield them 
in murdering justice, law, and the most sacred rights and 
cherished feelings of man. 

Mr. E — never even asked me to grant him or them any 
privilege, whatsoever. 

However, when the water at the mill had failed, a neighbor 
said to me that he could make some money in supplying the 
mill with water, if I would permit him to haul it from my place; 
that he would tap the stream some distance below the main 
head springs and the fence that enclosed them, run it into a 
box, placed over the stream, so as not to interfere with its other 
uses, and be subject to my desires as to the same. I agreed to 
this, he did as he agreed, and we never disagreed. 

In May, also in 1878, 1 suffered a man to put up a cabin on 
a corner of the school-land-tract that I had leased, as before 
shown, under the pretext and promise of stopping but a short 
timej when the water there would fail, and he would locate and 
move his cabin on to some vacant land. He repeatedly declar- 
ed that I had befriended him, when in need, as none other 
would do, and that '"he surely would never make me any 
trouble," etc. 

Afterwards, however, he said that he was advised by a 
("charitable") lawyer, that the law by which such lands were 
leased, was invalid, so that he could ignore it, and was en- 
couraged by other brethren to stick to this land. 

But he could never show wherein this, if true, would give 
Mm any legal or moral right to the same. For, although it was 
surveyed land, he could not file on it at the land office, which 



Shanghaied to the Gang's Bastile. 227 



office acquiesced in the leasing of it. He could not even file a 
contest there. 

Mr. Jutflper was a frequent visitor at the saw-mill. 

He was an old hand at the jumping business, and had been 
run out of two or more places for trying to kill men for their 
claims, so it was said, and was regarded as a hard and desperate 
citizen. He threatened my life and property continually and 
in all manner of ways, both to me and to others, so that it Avas 
notorious. Boasted of his influence and backing, and openly 
swore that he "was like Macbeth,— Damned be he who first 
cries hold, enough ! " 

Once, while I was working on the land, he brought his gun 
out to kill or drive me off. There were others present, so he 
left his carbine midway and came up, with brag and bluster, to 
me, to whip me. He also had a big dagger on him. But when 
I shoved my hand in my pocket, with neither brag or bluster, 
he suddenly stepped back, left, and afterwards swore that "but 
for one thing he would have shot all of us dead." 

I kept right on my even course, as I had been doing all 
those years. 

Had there been any law that would reach the gentleman, 
he would have been taken care of years before. But he was a 
man of linked, secret influence and backing. 

I had seen in my school books pictures portraying the 
pioneer of a century ago, performing his homage with a musket 
slung to his back, to protect him against lurking savages, armed 
with bows and tomahawks and crowned with feathers ; but here 
I was -like many others, and after a hundred Fourth-of-July 
orations and solemn vows — performing my homage in like 
manner against a more dangerous, lurking and linked foe, arm- 
ed with improved rifles and gin, and crowned with the flag of 
my country. 

When Mr. Jumper had thus got better acquainted with me 
—that he could not drive me to his terms, and also found he 
could make no crack or pretext wherein his lawyer gang and 
court could enter a wedge of plunder, we got sociable when we 
met, talked the matter over in a friendly way, at various times, 
and he gave up the job— and started in to jump another claim. 
Said he " did not want to farm any, as that did not pay the 



228 Defending my Life and Home. 



farmer," but had claimed my place as a " business venture," 
etc., would not trouble me any more, and would leave the 
place. Meanwhile, he was hauling water from my spring. 
His object was to drive me to buy him off, or kill me, if he 
found that to be practicable, or his backers give the sign. 
And other brethren standing ready to take his place, and be 
bouo-ht off in turn if that plan proved successful. 

The man to whom I had given the privilei^e to haul water 
for the saw-mill, quit it after a month or two ; others continued 
it for a time without any consent or objection from me, till the 
grand worthy master of the saw-mill (whom I had seen parad- 
ing the Bible through the streets with his gang) came over 
with his force of men and hell, and stealthily put up a big 
tank some distance above the other and away from the stream, 
on ashy ground that would take in the leakage and overflow, 
run pipes from it through my fence to the springs ; took all the 
water into his tank, and posted a notice forbidding " all persons 
from taking any water as it belonged to him." The thief had 
jumped the place ! sneering and jeering at suggestions of his own 
force that he respect my rights. 

And, presto ! my other jumper springs up and renews his 
claim and threats to me, and to others ; declared it to be " an 
outrage for one man to own all the land in the country and the 
water too," tore down my fences, etc., swore he would now 
settle me with an ounce of lead, etc., etc., boasted that " they 
would make it as hot as hell for me now," that " he had taken 
my school land. E — had taken my pre-emption, and by G— d! 
we will soon have a man on your homestead ! " And was more 
hostile than ever before. 

A man who had condemned and opposed the gentleman, 
and volunteered to loan me his gun to defend my life against 
him, had since been made to understand that he was a secret 
sworn brother as was also the worthy grand master, so he now 
urged him on and promised him assistance against me. Said 
he " was hound to assist him." 

" Only the actions of the just, 

Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust." 

I courteously protested to the worthy grand master against 



1 



Shanghaied to the Gang's Bastile. 229 

depriving me, as well as others, of " even w^ater for domestic 
use ! " and this, too, without ever asking me for any, to which 
he replied with grinning contempt, " If 3'ou want any water dig 
for it! " forbid me interfering with his grasp on it, or stand in 
his way, or " he would whip me, would fix me by helping the 
other jumper to get away with my school land," that " the 
place was not mine, and he would prosecute me in the courts 
of justice (?) for $40 or $50 a day for every day the mill was 
idle," etc., etc. 

After the water had been shut off from the people long 
enough for them to feel it well, and the jumping of it had be- 
come notorious, in spite of the lying, thieving gang to blind the 
facts, and I had examined my patent and the numbers closely, 
to see whether I really did own the place against such a bold, 
brazen and boisterous claim of the worthy grand master, then 
I tore the water pipes up, re-possessed and held my own 
against the gang of lying thieves, till they were re-enforced by 
the Government they prostitute to murder and ravage, against 
which "all wisdom, all virtue, all courage, are vain." 

" But trutli shall conquer at the last, 
For round and round we run, 
And ever the right comes uppermost, 
And ever is justice done. " 

The worthy grand master graded an expensive road to a 
spring in a deep ravine, moved his water tank from my place 
to it when it went dry, as he had been informed it would be- 
fore he located his mill. 

He then made another road to the deeply embedded Pataha 
creek ; this not being very practicable either, he got a secret 
ring brother interested to go to buy the same water privilege I 
had freely given my neighbor at the outset, and which he him- 
self had, till he jumped the whole stream and violated every 
principle of truth, justice and decency towards his benefactor. 
Indeed, I refused an offer of $150 for but four months use of 
the same water privilege I accorded him without charge. There 
was a good vacant stock range on the school section, and back 
of it in the mountain, but it was quite destitute of accessible 
water. It was to utilize this range that an owner of a large 



230 Defending my Life and Home. 



lierd offered me $150 that I refused, to simply accommodate 
the charitable mason. 

August 22, 1878, 1 started from the house with a load of 
wheat to sow my breaking on the school land part of my now 
envied home, accompanied by two mounted men to assist me 
(of late years I had sown all my grain on horseback). 

Others were afraid to go with me as they might get hit 
when I was being " shot out of the field," as Jumper had sworn 
he would do, if I undertook to sow the ground (but a peace 
officer had declined to interfere, advising me to " be prepared 
to defend myself against him, and thus work the land.") But 
these two men were on friendly terms with Jumper, and there- 
fore not considered in danger, though there was something 
said in jest about " drinking gunpowder " as we started. We 
had proceeded but a few rods when we met the " secret ring 
brother from the saw-mill ;" stated his business, when I invited 
him to go along up to the field and we would talk about the 
water matter on the way. 

We stopped at one end of the breaking opposite Jumper's 
cabin when I handed my two men each a one-half sack of 
wheat on their horses, and they struck out to sow and soon 
separated. I was mounting with a sack myself — having just 
made the ring brother mad by refusing his request for water— 
when he exclaimed, " There comes [Jumper] now with a gun.'' 

Sure enough, he was coming as a desperado with his cocked 
carbine in both hands to take the place, and was about to meet 
one of my men. I said, " Come let us go out and see what he is 
going to do ivith it." 

" I don't care a damn ivhat he does loith it ! " was the reply. 
I struck out and joined the man at his work, (and a man, loho 
tvas living ivith Jumper and had followed him out of the house, 
passed hy us and joined the secret ring brother at my ivagon.) 

Jumper, with his cocked carbine in both hands and finger 
on the trigger, closely followed us around, rolling out a tirade 
of boisterous, bullying profanity and threats, fired with gin, 
trying to drive us out of the field, I having nothing but my 
cocked pistol in hand for defense ; whenever he would bring 
the muzzle of his gun at me, I was always a little ahead with 
my pistol at him, he wanted a close dead shot, and tried several 



Shanghaied to the Gang's Bastile. 231 

times to get it; once he aimed at my companion, when he 
threw up his arms and brushed down his sides, saying, "Don't 
point 30ur gun at me, you see I am not armed ! " and exhorted 
him to " quit now, that he hiew I would die rather than be 
driven out of my own," and after thus following us around, he 
did quit, evidently having given up the job. 

But he went and had a lengthy conference with the secret 
brother and other friend at my wagon. (I had less dread of 
dying in such a cause than desire to live by its sacrifice, and 
when my time comes let it be in such a fight.) My companion 
not being used to sow grain in this way, I continued to ride 
close with him to teach him, when Jumper, from the ever after 
secret conference luith the ring brother, came tearing and boiling 
with venom — hunting my life ! telling my other hand on the 
way to " leave the field as a friend, for there is going to be trouble." 
(My companion says, " look out for him now ! " I thought I 
could throw myself on the side of my horse for protection as 
readily as I often picked my hat from the ground.) Coming on 
with blood-shot eyes, and with the most horrid, wicked, flam- 
ing look ever seen in the visage of man, overtakes, heads us 
off, belches out at the end of a stream of profanity, "turn back! 
leave thefield ! and dont come back nartj time ! I ivillfix you ! and 
then I ivill kill you ! '' as he blazed away — twice, I returning 
the fire in rapid succession. 

My first and his second shot were fired together, thus 
making a louder report than any other. 

My horse flaring and me dodging kept me from shooting 
at the first shot, and as my companion also dropped down on 
his saddle, I, as well as Jumper, thought he was hit — though, 
of course, shooting at me ; quickly re-loading with the lever, 
and stepping up closer and more to the side, so as to aim be- 
hind my companion at me, he quickly fired again, saying, "7 
will kill you ! " but at the same instant my companion, reaching 
back, struck down the muzzle, so the charge crashed into 
the rump of his horse — ranging downward and diagonally 
toward me, I emptying my pistol into him in about five 
seconds. My four bullets ranging downward, thus stopping 
him from emptying his filled magazine into me, though he still 
had strength enough for a terrific, sanguinary struggle— that 



232 Defending iviy Life and Home. 

followed my sliots — for control of the gun. My companion 
having gripped it as he struck it down. Jumper thus jerked 
him off his sinking horse, clubbed him against the head with 
the gun breech, and dragged him forty feet over the ground, so 
that it took another man to control it, just as he had got it re- 
loaded and cocked again. 

Then Jumper went to his house, boasted that " he had shot 
my companion as ivell as me" and in 12 hours died, but neither 
of us was shot. 

The *' secret ring brother " and companion run away (from 
the wagon) at the onset of the fight, reporting that I was shot. 

A neighbor at a distance on hearing the carbine shots 
exclaimed, " there ! France is shot ! " 

The foregoing is not only a true account of the fight, etc., 
and prelude to it, but the facts as stated were so transparent, 
evident, consistent loithal, and susceptible oi positive, certain proof, 
that it should carry conviction to every mind, for there was no 
hinge or loop to hang an honest doubt upon, and any one 
swearing to the contrary, or diversely, would gain no intelli- 
gent, honest belief, would be a self-contacted, perjured liar, and, 
if given justice, would be punished accordingly. No one but a 
thief ever has or will dispute this — such as are liars and 
thieves of the first magnitude. 

Inventions of the enemy : 

" Where logic is inverted and wrong is called right." 
" Where honor is lost and valor fled, 
And all her virtues numbered with the dead ! ' 

I neglected to swear out a complaint against the secret 
ring brother & Co., (who will be known in my epitome, Chap- 
ter XVIII, as the " Distant and officious witness ") wheu, 
presto ! he swore out one against me, charging me with 
murder I And his companion at the wagon was suppressed, 
and then spirited away, for he wanted to tell the truth. And 
other secret brethren — including some who were on friendly 
and sociable terms with me just before (though not all such) — 
now whipped into line, snapped and snarled, conspired, in- 
trigued, and wickedly lied and swore to stab me down, to wring 
and suck my heart's blood in revenge for their Daniie, and to 







f233) 



234 Defending my Life and Home. 

praise and venerate their dead brother-assassin, home ravager, 
and ravislier ! 

' ' And if by this meaus we further our cause 
The private assassin desei-ves our ajjplause." 

The day before the fight, Mrs. E repelled the charita- 
ble and to be venerated Danite brother from her bed and 
house with a pistol, while struggling to ravish her ! And the 
very day of our fight her husband started out with a gun to 
kill this to be sanctified saint, for his brutal attempt. 

" With the cloak of the Bible their j^rostitution to veil, 
The Devil's a saint till he shows us his tail." 

Certainly, none of them ever swore or said anything against 
me but what could be shattered by its own rottenness alone, as 
well as by their slimy characters. Certainly, there was no man 
or woman, that was not a thief at heart, that did not rejoice 
that the to be sanctified saint of these Mormons was dead. 

His own brother-in-law said, that "he ought to have been 
killed years before for his crimes ! " 

But what could 7 do ? What could anybody do ? When 
thrown into prison without any hearing ; forced to employ and 
trust black-leg shysters, who are secret sworn brethren to the 
enemy, stand in to keep you in prison for witnesses to be 
falsely held, tortured, tampered with and spirited away, and 
a jury selected by secret brethren ; and you are stabbed and 
bled at every pore, and your ruin fixed ! Practises every kind 
of deception, treason and cruelty known to the villainous, 
slimy trade, destroys correct and indisjDutable diagrams of the 
scenes of strife, and rejects the measurement of the ground at 
the last minute ! 

Assured by them that you have " done nothing,'' and will 
be freed with a trial, and you fear no danger, for you know no 
guilt. 

Bid can never get any trial, or freedom, or even a hearing. 
" That keep the words of promise to our ear, and break it to 
our hope. Told me such things — oh ! with such devilish art." 
That squelches alike the bad character of the secret brother, 
and that of your own that was good from childhood. Also 
sixty per cent of your witnesses and sixty per cent, of valuable 



i 



Shanghaied to the Gang's Bastile. 235 

facts kuowu to the remainder, and endeavors to squelch your 
oion evidence entirely as " unnecessary." And when a court and 
executive are but servile tools of such a hideous, grimly, slimj^ 
midnight Mormon gang, who recognizes no such thing as right 
or wrong, heart or conscience, justice or humanity ! 

" Is this tlien," thought the youth, " is this the way 
To free man's spirit from the deadeuing sway 
Of Avorhlly sloth — to teach him Avhile he hves, 
To know no bhss but that which ^•il•tue gives ? " 

" Oh, that a dream so sweet so long enjoy 'd, 
Should be so sadly, cruelly destroy'd ! 
• His faith was bai'tered and the crime was done." — Moore. 

How Tkials of the Brethren are Managed, etc. 

B 's trial for shooting an unarmed man (S ) doiV7i in the 

street. " Evidence was introduced to show that S was 

quarrelsome, and had been involved in several rows elsewhere." 

[Such evidence was squelched in my case.] 

Another sample case. — "One hundred and thirty-six ques- 
tions of fact were propounded to the jury, and which they 
struggled with until they aifiswered them, 

[No questions were asked the jury in my case, nor did any 
of the jury ask any questions.'] " The argument of counsel occu- 
pied about eighteen hours, one of the counsel occupied nearly 
half that time in opening the argument." [In my case my 
counsel (?) talked about fifteen minutes, but my case was never 
opened, presented, plead, or argued at all.] 

"Virtue distressed " could get uo protection here. 

"And shall no curso for perjury be paid? 
No vengeance \-iudjcate the friend betrayed?" 

Another sample case. — " The jury returned to ask ' If a man 
had a deadly weapon in his hand, and another thought he was 
about to use it against him, and shot the former : Would it be 
manslaughter or murder ? ' The Judge replied that it would 
be neither." 

"But say, vain trifler, must thy years be told, 

"What bliss is centred in another's gold? 

Let angry Heaven dart 

Its forked Hghtning through your guilty heart." 



236 Defending my Life and Home. 

In another case the Chief Justice of Washington Territory 
charged the jury as follows : 

" The law is, that if a person, or his family, or his friends, 
are assailed or approached in such a Avay and under sucli cir- 
cumstances as to induce in him a reasonable belief that he or 
they are in imminent danger of unlawfully loosing life or suf- 
fering great bodily harm, or being driven from his dwelling, or 
that his dwelling is in imminent danger of being unlawfully 
entered or destroyed, or seriously injured, he will be justified 
or excused in defending himself, or his family, or his friends, 
or his dwelling, as the case may be, although as a matter of 
fact he be mistaken as to the actual extent of the danger, or 
the danger be not real, but only apparent. Of course, it makes 
no difference under this law whether the dwelling endangered 
or in question is a Chinese tent or a white man's building. 
Tou are instructed that evidence of good character is compe- 
tent in favor of a party accused, as tending to show that he 
would not be likely to commit the crime alleged against him, 
and in doubtful cases, e^ddence of previous good character is 
entitled to great weight in favor of innocence. And if, from 
the evidence, you find that any facf necessary to establish the 
defendant's guilt of any grade of crime is in doubt, then, if the 
prisoner has, by evidence, satisfied you that he was up to the 
time the offense is alleged to have been committed, a man of 
good character, the presumption of law is that the supposed 
crime is so inconsistent with the former life and character of 
the defendant that he could not have intended to do the crim- 
inal act, and it would be your duty to give the defendant your 
benefit of the presumption, and acquit him. All killing of man- 
kind is unlawful except such as happens from mere accident 
or mistake, or is done in obedience to public duty, or in lawful 
defense of person, habitation, or property." 

' Of the wealtli of mankind they all seize a sliare, 
And riot alike in the spoils of the fair." 

Sec. 778 of the Territorial Code says, "That all persons accused of 
crime in any court of this territory, whether by indictment or other^wise, 
shall be admitted to bail by the court, where the same is pending, or by a 
judge m vacation, when it shall ajjpear to the court or jtidge, that the ac- 
cused has offered to go to trial in good faith, and without collusion Avith 



Shanghaied to the Gang's Bastile. 237 

witnesses, and has been denied a trial by the court and the bail 

bond in snch cases shall be reasonable and at the sound discretion of the 
court. 

Yet I was held to languish in jail nearly ten months, always 
begging for a trial or hearing, and was less prepared every day it 
was delayed. And the Judge oflfered to grant it forthwith, and 
yet I coiild never get any hearing or trial, for when the thing did 
at last come off it was fixed and managed so that it was a 
traitorous j oh, and not a trial at all. Nor could I get rid of the 
shysters, when I found them out, or attend to my case my- 
self, as I tried so hard to do. 

Any one, who denies any of this, is a liar, a thief and a cur ! 

" Man, false man, smiling, destructive man ! " 

" Distinction neat and nice which lie between 
The poisoned chalice and the stab unseen." 

" Oh, 'twas too much — too dreadful to endure /" 

A sample of a Judge's charge in behalf of a mason, even when 
the public sentiment was so bitter against him that a guard 
had to be stationed at the jail to keep him from being lynched 
in daylight, till sent out of the County. The officials who se- 
lected the jury being secret sworn brethren, of course, he was to 
be acquitted anyway. However, the Court said, as is usual for 
the brethren : 

"In order to convict him of the crime alleged in the indictment or of 
any lesser crime included in it, every material fact necessary to constitute 
such crime, must be proved beyond all reasonable doubt, as defined in 
these instructions. 

"And if you entertain any such reasonable doubt upon any single fact 
or element necessary to constitute the crime, then the piisoner is entitled 
to the benefit of such doubt, and it is your sworn duty to find a verdict of 
acquittal. 

"The defendant is entitled to every presumption of innocence com- 
patible with the e^^dence in the case, and if it is i)ossible to account for 
the killing of the deceased ui)on any other reasonable hypothesis than that 
of the gtult of the defendant, it is your duty to acquit him. 

' ' There is CA-idence in this case tending to show, that the killing was 
in self-defense by the defendant, and was an excusable or justifiable homi- 
cide. I therefore instruct you ui)on the doctrine of self-defense and justi- 
fiable homicide, as follows: 



238 Defending my Life and Home. 

"Where an assaiilt, threatening instant and gi-eat bodily harm is made 
upon one in a place where he has a right to be, he is not obhged to retreat, 
but may stand his ground and use all force reasonably necessary to repel 
the assault and reUeve himself from the danger. S — , if so assaUed, is excus- 
able, if he acted according to the circumstances as they api3eared to him. 
[The other man was not armed.] And, if he, acting honestly upon such 
appearance, did no more than it was reasonable for him to beheve necessary 
for his defense, he is excusable for all consequences of his acts. 

' ' Or, if S — , from the circumstances as they appeared to him at the 
time of shooting, had good reason to beheve, and did beheve, that D — was 
about to assault him, and if, under such appearances, it was a reasonable 
measure to adojjt, to prevent a collision, to exhibit the pistol, and the pis- 
tol was accordingly exhibited, not with intent to assault D — but as an 
honest act of precaution, to insure his own safety by intimidating D — , or 
by ha^dng it ready in case of an assault upon himself, and thereu^jon D — 
assaulted S — with such violence as reasonably to induce S — to beheve 
himself in danger of his hfe or great bodily harm, and S — , so beheAing, 
shot D — , then S — is excusable and should be acquitted of every grade of 
crime. S — , acting excusably upon circumstances as they apjjeared to him, 
would not be less excusable if it afterwards turned out, or not appears to 
you, that the appearances were deceitful and that he was actiially mistaken 
as to the reahty, extent or character of the danger. 

"It is also your province and your duty to take into consideration the 
general character of the deceased, as a \'iolent, quarrelsome and bad man, 
at and immediately before the time of the homicide, so far as the same is 
Bho^\'n by the evidence offered in the case, if you beheve the same is shown 
by the evidence to have been known to the defendant, at the time of the 
killing. 

"So also, any threats made by the deceased against the prisoner im- 
mediately before the homicide, that were known to the prisoner at the time 
of the occuiTence, should be considered by you when discussing and pass- 
ing upon the nght of the prisoner to act upon appearances. " 

Another Judge in another case "advised the jury that the 
accused shoukl receive the benefit of his record and good 
character previously." 

Self-Defense. 

When and how a man can slay another and have the law on his side. 
A well-known judge said to a reporter one day recently : "It woud be 
interesting to show what constitutes the right of self-defense as laid down 
in the law books. The right of self-defense is founded on the law of nature, 
and is not superseded by the laws of society. It is a right which every 
one brings into society, and retains in society, excejat so far as the laws of 
society have cuilailed it. Every man has a right to defend himself against 



Shanghaied to the Gang's Bastile. 239 

an attack tlireatening liim with death or serious bodily harm, and his inno- 
cence "will be presumed until his guilt is established beyond a reasonable 
doubt. The right is based on necessity, and arises where one manifestly 
intends and endeavors, by ^^iolence or surjjrise, to commit a known felony 
on the person, habitation or property of another. It is a defense against a 
present unlawful attack; as where an assault is made with a deadly weapon, 
or where one is assaulted in his habitation, or where a forcible felony is at- 
tem^jted. The law of self-defense does not require one, whose life has been 
threatened, to seek the protection of the law; nor is he obhged first to call 
on the authorities. The omission to seek protection from the authoiities 
does not deprive him of the jirotection of the law, or of his rights of self- 
defense. 

"The right of self-defense is not limited to the actual danger threaten- 
ed. The danger of death or great bodily harm must be either real, or be 
honestly beHeved at the time, to be imminent and on sufficient gTounds. 
A reasonable apprehension of danger is sufficient; and a reasonable ground 
for belief that there is a design to destroy life, to rob, or commit a felony ; 
a reasonable and well-grounded beHef , a behef arising from appearances 
that the danger is actiial and imminent. Guilt must depend on the circum- 
stances as they appeared to him. Apparent danger is a mixed question of 
law and fact. A man is justified in acting for his defense according to the 
circumstances as they appear to him. 

"The law of self-defense does not require one whose Hfe has been 
threatened to leave his house or to secrete himself to avoid his foe. When 
a ijerson without fault — in a place where he has a right to be — ^is A-iolently 
assailed, he may, without retreating, rejjel force by force, in the reasonable 
exercise of his right of self-defense. He is not obhged to retreat or go to 
tJie waU from an assailant anned with a deadly weaj^on, and if he is driven 
to the wall so that he must be kiUed or sustain great bodily harm, and, 
therefore, kills his assailant it is excusable homicide. He is not obhged to 
retreat, but may pursue until he is out of danger, and may Icill to get out 
of danger; but when the attack is not felonious the rule of law is different. 

"A man is not required to do everything in his power to avoid the 
necessity of slaying his assailant. "Where there is no escape, after retreat- 
ing as far as possible, killing avlU be justifiable, so where retreat is im- 
possible or perilous, or would increase the danger, or where further retreat 
is jsrevented by some imi^ediment, or was as far as the fierceness of the 
assault permitted. But if the assaulted party is in fault, he is bound to 
retreat as far as he can safely do so; he is required to decline the combat 
in good faith, and if he uses all the means in his power to escajse, even 
killing in self-defense is lawful. But if a man socks to bring on a difficulty 
and slays his adversary he can not avail himself of the plea of self-defense. 
That a party has been struck gives him no right to retahate by an assault. 

"An act done from necessity raises no ijresumption of a criminal in- 
tent; biit the necessity must be actual, imminent, and apparent, with no 



240 Defending my Life and Home. 

other probable or possible means of escape. It must be great, and must 
arise from immineut peril to life or limb. Men, ■\vhen threatened with 
danger, must determine the necessity of resorting to self-defense, and they 
•will not be held responsible for a mistake in the extent of the actual danger, 
nor be subject to the peril of making that guilty, if appearances prove 
false, "which would be innocent if they proved true. There must be at least 
an apparent necessity, an actual necessity, or a reasonable behef of such 
necessity, to ward off some impending harm. Necessity is a defense when 
the act charged was done to avoid irreparable evil, from which there was 
no other adequate means of escape, and the remedy was not disproijoi-tion- 
ate to the threathened evil; and the necessity must not have been created 
by the fault of him who pleads it, nor be occasioned by him, nor be the 
result of his own culijability, nor be rashly rushed into; and in cases of 
assault or intrusion by strangers no more force than is necessary must be 
used in repelhng the assault. 

"The light of self-defense does not include the right of retribution. 
A party assaulted is justified in using such force as is necessary to rejjel an 
assailant, but no more, and if unnecessary force is used he becomes the 
assailant. The degree of force must not exceed the bounds of defense and 
prevention, and this depends on the circumstances of each case, and the 
condition of both parties may be considered. A party in i^ossession of 
property may use force suflficient to protect it. "^Miether a man is justified 
in employing in the first instance such means of resistance as will produce 
death, depends on the circumstances and the nature of the attack, and he 
may not always use a deadly weapon, and it is still further wrong if it is a 
concealed weaijon. But if the taking of life is necessary it will be excus- 
able. It is always excusable when in defense of life, yet it requii-es a great 
disjiarity of size and strength and a very violent attack to excuse the taking 
of hf e. A party may use Avhatever force is necessaiy to avert the apparent 
danger, although it may afterw'ard ajspear that the gun was not loaded, 
and that there was no real danger." — Louisville Commercial. 

" He jests at scars, tliat never felt a wound." 
" And now one cannot but complain here of fortune as 
still envious of virtue, and hindering the performance of glori- 
ous achievements ; this was the case of the man before us, 
when he had just attained his purpose, for he then stumbled 
at a certain large stone and fell innocently into the hands and 
power of felons, robbers, perjurers, and thieves." — History. 

Sec. 956 of the Washington Tei-ritory Code says : "No distinction shall 
exist between an accessory before the fact and a principal, or between 
principals in the first and second degree and all persons concerned in the 
commission of an offense, whether they directly counsel the act constitut- 
ing the offense, or counsel, aid and abet in its commission, though not 
present, shall hereafter be indicted, tried and punished as principals." 



Shanghaied to the Gangs Bastile. 241 



Tet none of those who " counseled, aided and abetted " my 
conduct were found guilty of any crime, not even the justice of 
the peace, under whose direct advice (the day before) I acted 
to the letter. And he offered to and did loan me the very seed 
for the very same stated purpose I teas solving at the fight, (as I 
would not thresh till late in the fall) and he knew every phase 
of the case. 

But after the fight confessed (like the brother that loaned 
me his pistol) that he " icould have to do jud as the \hlack-leg 
leader of the linked mob] said." 

As hard as I tried, I could not get even this witness sub- 
poenaed to testify at — what was called — my trial (?). 

And I " must not tell of any of these villainies or die," mvst I? 
You damned, cowardly midnight assassins, traitors and thieves. 

Nor were any of those who " counseled, aided and abetted " 
their Danite Jumper molested at all. 

Sec. 9-58 of the Code says: "Eveiy person who shall become an ac- 
cessory after the fact to any felony may be indicted, conAicted and punish- 
ed, whether the piinciiml felon shall or shall not have been con\dcted pre- 
A-iously, or shall or shall not be amendable to jiistice by any court having 
jurisdiction to tr\' the princijjal felon and either in the county where such 
l^erson shall become an accessoiy, or in the county where such (principal) 
feloney shall have been committed." 

Yet none of the sworn, slimy gang have been molested to this 
day. 

"Oh ! 'tis not, Hinda, in the jDOwer 

Of fancy's most terrific touch 

To j)aint thy pangs in that dread hour — 

Thy silent agony — -'twas such 

As those who feel could jmint too weU, 

But none e'er felt and lived to tell ! " — Moore. 

Sec. 1070 of Code !irni<i: "In i^rosecution for capital offenses, the de- 
fendant may challenge perem^jtorily twelve (12) jurors. " 

I was not permitted to know or to find out anything about 
the jury so as to challenge anybody. Was forced to trust to 
shysters who were masons and odd-fellows themselves. 

The prosecution (if you kuow which side I mean by that) 
used all of their challenges, and had a servile gin-soaked mason 
to select others. 
16 



242 Defending mt Life and Home. 

"Yes — if tliere be some liappier sphere 
Where fadeless tiiith like ours is dear: — 
If there be any land of rest 
For those Avho love and ne'er forget." 

"And must I leave thee "withering here, 

The s^jort of every ruffians tread, 

The mark for eveiy coward's spear? " — Moore. 

Sec. 1082 of Code says : — "Challenges for cause shall be allowed for 
such cause as the court may, in its discretion, deem sufficient, ha%-ing refer- 
ence to the causes of challenge prescribed in c'wil cases, as far as they may 
be applicable and to the substantial rights of the defendant." 

Yet there were no challenges for cause made in my case, 
and both masons and odd-fellows sat on the jury. 

" It is not easy for those who have not suffered wrong from 
this cause to conceive the depth of indignation and bitterness 
of dismay which an honest and truthful man feels, on finding- 
himself defeated in a righteous cause, sworn out of court, out 
of money and even reputation, and placed in an utterly false, 
invidious and unmerited position by placid, habitual, reputable, 
unflinching perjurers. He had i elied upon the sanctity which 
the tender conscience attaches to an oath, for all he requires 
for his vindication is merely the admission of the simple truth. 
But the consciences to which he appeals are seared by the 
practice of hypocrisy and falsehood, and looking upon an affi- 
davit, oral or written, merely as a convenient weapon of legal 
warfare, to be used with regard not to truth, but to expediency, 
he becomes the victim of his own trust in others' inviolable 
veneration for an oath. 

If the best cause is thus liable to be overthrown, and the 
aims of justice frustrated by the overreaching of perjury, the 
question is forced upon us : Is this vice to be allowed to tri- 
umph over and to trample trusting uprightness under foot ? " 

"The bud bit with an envaous worm. 

Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air." 

" All things else that have any strength are mortal and 
short-lived ; but truth is a thing that is immortal and eternal. 
It affords us not, indeed, such a beauty as will whither away 
by time, nor such riches as may be taken away by fortune, but 



Shanghaied to the Gang's Bastile. 243 

righteous rules and laws. It distinguishes them from injustice 
and puts what is unrighteous to rebuke." 

" Good men then will greet it with a smile." 

Sec. 1105 of Code says: As to causes for new trials or arrest of judg- 
ment. "Ai^plication must be made before judgment and may be granted 
for the f ollow-ing causes— For newly discovered e^^dence material for the 
defendant, which he could not have discovered Avith reasonable diligence 

and produced at trial. Accident or surprise Misdirection of 

jury by court in a material matter of laAv, excepted to at the time. When 
the verdict is contrary to law and e\-idence. Exceptions may be taken by 
the defendant, as in ciA-il cases, on any matter of law by which his sub- 
stantial rights are prejudiced." 

Samples have been given of the material and vital evidence 
which I could not produce at that time on account of traitor- 
ous duress and being/orcer? to trust to the shysters. And the 
verdict was so plainly contrary to law, and the evidence, even 
as it was, that after the verdict of murder in the second degree 
was rendered (and a ten year's sentence) I demanded of the 
foreman of the packed jury to know on " what point, or on 
what ground, or on what evidence they found their verdict ? " 
And he could not give any ; said he, " if I had not shot so often 
they could not have made anything out of it." 

And this when it was established that the danger was 
apparent, believed, and real, even after I had done shooting. (See 
Epitome to the Governor, Chapter XVIII ) 

And, certainly, my " substantial rights ivere prejudiced " by 
such a job and verdict. 

" How many warm friends turn cold and clammy when a man 
is in trouble ? " 

As to '' Accident or Surprise." Was not the whole outrage an 
" accident " to me ! 

What can a victim do in his own behalf when held down in 
jail, and the officials belong to the secret government and gang, 
first, last, and all the time. And even spy and rifle his correspon- 
dence ! — lawless as such conduct is — and stand in with the shys- 
ters and gang, to deceive, harrass and bleed him at every pore ! 

Two witnesses had been thrown and held in jail on a false 
charge, and, without a hearing, tormented and frightened till they 



244 Defending my Life akd HoaiE. 

would swear that Jumpei*'s carbine was pointed at ray near (un- 
armed) companion, and not at me when he fired. 

It required three or four months of this treasonable treat- 
ment and management, intrigue and cruelty to bring one of them to 
terms and six months longer to fix the other. And they were held and 
tormented and frightened, and my trial {?) delayed accordiiigly, while I 
was pleading and begging for a trial ! 

" Wisdom and truth may seek to convince, or eloquence to 
charm, but only one influence can be built upon as certain — the 
magnetic attraction of superior villainy." 

"I saw those friends iu fruitless sorrow mourn, 
From mii'tli, society, subsistence torn." 

One of my (?) shysters told me at the onset of my " trial " 
that one of these witnesses " still stated to him the very same 
account of the fight that he had to him and to so many others all 
the time from the fight, and that it still agreed ivith my oivn as 
to every point.'" And that he " knew nothing to the contrary as 
to the other," adding that " You will soon go home now." And 
neither I nor my friends knew of the success of this trick till it 
teas sprung on the stand. 

How is that J or a " Surprise," and another reason for a 
new trial ? And when it could easily be proven that one had 
even made an affidavit to the truth, as I have given it before, 
aid the other had told the truth so often to others — including 
his wife — that she did not hioio that he had ever said anything to 
thecontrary till years afterwards, and to this day (1889) he ridicules 
the idea that Jumper was trying to kill anyone hut me, and a week 
ago said that " neither he nor anyone else, as far as he kneiv, ever 
believed to the contrary." 

But even had the jury believed it, the idea of its being 
murder for defending a friend's life against such an animal and 
under such circumstances ! 

The English and Indian languages are too barren of 
epithets, and hell is too mild to do such gentlemen justice ! 

On my " gentlemen of the bar " refusiug to move for a new 
trial, I was doing so myself when — as usual — I was beat down 
by their plea to the court in opposition— " that they had coun- 
ciled with the other members of the bar and found that it ivould 
not he to their client's interest to have a new trial." 



Shanghaied to the Gang's Bastile. 245 

'' Each star of hope that clieer'd him on — 
His glories lost — his caus>'. blrayed" 

"And thoiigli his Ufe Las jJassM away, 

Like hghtning on a stormy day. 

Yet shall his death-hour leave a track 

Of gloiy, permanent and bright, 

To -which the brave of after-times, 

The snffeiing brave, shall long look back 

With proiid regret — and by its hght 

Watch through the hours of slavery's night 

For vengeance on the oppressor's crimes! " — Moore. 

" He lias retired, it is true, but liis ambition, though seem- 
ingly smothered, still burns within, and his principles are un- 
altered." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

A pilgrimage thi'ough liell ! — Seven years' experience in the Seatco contract 
bastile. — The kind of a hell and s'windle this was. — How I was taken 
there. — A three or four days journey by wagon, boat and rail. — Hoav I 
was judged by jjeople on the road. — Sympathy. — "Either innocent of 
Clime, or a very bad man. " — The set questions asked by those who 
had suffered likewise. — Descrii^tion of the bastile. — How I was im- 
l^ressed. — The kind of people I foimd the jirisoners to be. — And the 
officials. — HoAV they were employed. — "What they had done and what 
they had not done. — Their complaints, etc. — Jumijing away. — The 
crooked and rocky road to liberty. — ^Who got there and how. — The 
inquisition of the mind. — How prisoners are driven to the frenzy of des- 
pau' and death. — What they earned and were worth to the gang. — What it 
cost the peojDle. — ^What they got to eat and wear. — How they w^ere 
treated when well and when sick. — The punishments. — How I was en- 
gaged while in the midst of flaming desolation. — Crazy prisoners. — 
The good and bad quahties and conduct of the officials. — The redeem- 
ing feature of the institution. — The different nationahties and occui^a- 
tions rej)resented and their experiences. — One of the Polaris' crew ; six 
months on an ice-floe. — The good, bad and mixed. — The innocent, 
guilty, and the victims of circumstances, whiskey and accidents. — In- 
equahty of sentences and treatment. — Bobbing the cradle and the grave 
for seventy cents a day. — How the jDrisoners Hved and died. — The cen- 
sorship on coiTespondence, and the real object of the same. — A secret 
prison. — Shanghaied prisoners try to make theh' cases known to the 
pubhc. — How the Governor stood inmth the gang. — Letters smuggled 
by ministers, members of the Legislature, humane guards, etc. — 
Squelching letters of %ital imi:)oi'tance. — "Damn you, you can't prove 
it!" — Like abuses in the Insane asylum. — The remedy. — A plea that 
any prisoner shall at least be accorded a public hearing and let /7?e People 
judge. — The worst criminals not in jorison but in office. — Their victims 
crushed. — ^A j)et prisoner turaed in with a bottle of whiskey and a 
pistol in his pockets. — The visiting preachers. — What they thought of 
the prisoners and of the officials. — One that Avas a thorough-bred and 
would fight the devil in any giiise. — What he did for refonn, and how 
he was bounced. — Can write to him yourself . — Cruel deception. ^False 
and cheating hojjes. — "There is France ! If he had not been so anxious 
about getting home, he would have been out long ago." — "Must keep 
stUl and not bore anybody." — Hoio the still and meek languished and 
died! — How other prisoners were shanghaied. — "Bad conduct." — My 
conduct." — Strikes, etc. — How officials are interested against a pnson- 
ers justice. — How "heaven is sometimes just and pays us back in 
measures that we meto."^ — How prisoners are robbed. — Women prison- 
ers, and how they were treated. — Visits of the Legislature, etc. — A 

(246) 



How TO KuN A Keform Prison. 217 

prisoner makes a gi-eat speech and Lis teeth are pulled out for the 
trouble it makes the officials. — What the Legislature said, and what 
they did. — The pardoning i:)OAver and how it was exercised. — The lie, 
that "to hear prisoners talk they are all innocent." — Reading matter, 
etc. — How to control i)risoners. — How they get revenge. — How prison- 
ers should be treated. — 'WTiere they should be kept. — How a j^rison 
should be conducted to be self-suppoi-tiug and to reform those Avho 
need reforming. — How to enforce the sacred right of j^etition, and the 
sober second thought of the people. 

i EREITOKIAL prisoners had been kept in the different 
county jails (where they should have reraained), but at the then 
last session of the legislature there was a proposition in the 
interest of the people, that the general Government sell to the 
territory for $36,000, on time, its prison situated on McNiels 
Island, Puget Sound. The prison cost the United States 
$50,000 and was worth with the ground over $100,000. 

But a gang of Free Masons wanted to get the prisoners by 
contract, and got a committee of their brethren appointed to 
examine the property and report it to be " unsafe for keeping 
prisoners." This was a brazen falsehood — it being as safe as 
perhaps any other prison in the United States, it being built 
of iron, stone and brick, and on the general j^lan of all United 
States prisons, and being on a small island. Moreover, no 
prisoner had ever broken out of the 2)yiso)i. 

Here the prison could be made self-supporting, and without 
any abuse of the prisoners, but as the legislature contained 
masons enough to control its proceedings it discarded the 
generous offer of the Government, and gave to the aforesaid 
brethren a contract for the keeping of all territorial prisoners 
for six (6) years, giving them seventy cents per day for each 
prisoner, and all their labor, besides paying for their transporta- 
tion to the prison. Others would keep the prisoners for much 
less pay, but they were ignored. 

The contractors built a prison of wood, 40x150 feet, two 
stories high, at a cost of about $4,000, in the woods on the N. 
P. railroad near a coal mine, in which they exj^ected to utilize 
their labor. They also run a cooper shop making fish barrels, 
and had a tract of land to clear, grub and cultivate, also a brick- 
3'ard, and were to cut wood for the railroad and build short 
branches for the same. A large sash and door factory was also 



248 A PrLGRBiAGE IN Hell. 



built and run with the prison labor - and all for the benefit of 
the gang. 

In two or three weeks after my sentence, one of these con- 
tractors (full of gin) came for me and another prisoner. I was 
taken out in the yard, double-ironed by a blacksmith, and we 
started by wagon for Walla Walla, where we would go by rail 
to the Columbia river, thence by boat to Portland and Kalama, 
thence by the N. P. railroad to the Seatco Bastile. 

I had often desired to travel over this route, but not as a 
desperado and in double irons. But this is the way I was 
driven from the country where I had worked so hard and pros- 
pered so well. 

I, however, expected that my stay at the prison would be 
brief, and I could then travel as I pleased. 

We were three or four days on the road, and the pas- 
sengers and others I met were very friendly, refusing to be- 
lieve I was such a bad man though I told them that twelve 
men had been found who had sworn it without asking a single 
question. One group decided after discussing the matter, that 
" he is either entirely innocent of crime, or else a very danger- 
ous man," but they were generally unable to understand how I 
could be convicted, having such a strong case of self-defense, 
and considered it a great outrage that "the Governor was 
sworn to correct." There were some, however, who had had 
like experiences with the courts, and simply asked me a few 
questions. " Was the man you killed or those backing him 
masons or odd-fellows ? " " Were they Avho selected the jury ? " 
" Was the Judge ? " " Were j-our lawyers? " And when I had 
answered " Yes ! " to each question, they understood the matter, 
and gave me their like experiences. And there were some who 
knew one of my attorneys in Oregon, which was enough for 
them ; said " he had conspired to murder a man for his money " 
— anyway he had got away with the murdered man's money. 
And we wondered whether the people would ever learn, with- 
out flaming experience, to discard their secret sworn enemies 
for office or trust. Arriving at the prison we were turned into 
a hall, 22x90 feet, up stairs ; the dining-room, kitchen, tailor 
and shoe shop, and the guards' quarters being on the same 
floor ; the cells being below and generally used only to sleep in. 



I 



' ^ "1'.. . '. ^vj^ 










250 A PiLGRrtfAGE IN Hell. 



I thought it hard usage to be ironed like a felon, having 
prided myself on my good and peaceable character, and know- 
ing that a jury's verdict did not change a fact ; but I thought 
this would end at the prison. I was, however, soon undeceived, 
for when the prisoners came in from work the sight and clatter 
of chains was deafening and damnable, nearly all being in 
heavy double irons, riveted to their legs, wearing them day and 
night, sick or well -all the time. Here were linls and rings 
that were true emblems of practical masonry, and solid, livid- 
proof of its cruel inhumanity to other men. 

" The laiinted citizen his death demands, 
Is thus cast into the tortiirer's hands." 

"Be not abashed, resign thv fear, 
Though weak and small thou art, 
'Tn-as honest labor brought thee here, 
And freedom bids thee part." 

" Thus spoiled and degraded, lliey we7-e delivered over without pro- 
-tedion, they and their families, to the insults of hired banditti." 

" Consider the absolutely defenseless condition of the ac- 
cused, the whole power of the body politic is marshalled 
against the individual, it is the commonwealth against the 
citizen. A grand jury has declared his probable guilt uniJiout 
giving him a hearing ; an organized and secret tribunal [of 
masons] has furnished the trusted officers of the law [also 
masons] the names of the accusers, and the judicial power of 
the State has been brought into action to compel their pres- 
ence before the bar of Justice (?). If necessary the most 
talented and unscrupulous advocates in the land are summoned 
to aid the already seemingly invincible combination of power. 
In what painful contrast is the position of the prisoner, fre- 
quently suffering physically from confinement, and mentally 
from the terrible nature of the struggle for life and liberty in 
which he is engaged ; often with insufficient or treacherous 
thieving counsel, and ivithout the opportunity of searching out his 
own tvitnesses, or having others perform this necessary labor for 
him. The jury asks the question, " If this man is not guilty 
why is he here ? Why are all these officials paid by the State 



I 



How TO Kl N A Reform Pkison. 251 

to convict liim ? " aud, when a secret sign is given, answers, " Of 
course he is f^uilty, or he would not be here." Thus the prisons 
contain so large a proportion of innocent men - a proportion 
increasing year hy year. 

The juror who is false to his duty is worse than any crim- 
inal he may condemn. He is false to his citizenship, false to 
his duty, false to his oath, false to his God. In violation of his 
oath he places upon his fellow-citizen, his fellow-man a brand 
of infamy which shall never be removed, he deprives him of 
that greatest of civil rights, liberty ! degrades him temporarily 
to servitude, and places him within the walls of a house of 
torture, whence he shall come forth to be followed by scorn, 
relentless and remorseless." 

" Go, crucify that slave. For what oflfense ? 
Who the accuser ? Where the e\'i(lence ? 
For when the hf e of man is in debate, 
No time can be too long, no care too great, 
— Hear all, weigh all with caution." 

An offense against the gang is committed, an outsider is 
arrested, the whole official system is put in motion to concoct 
evidence of his guilt, the wretched man is flung into prison and 
is kept there until his health is broken down, his hojDes of 
justice extinguished, and his means of defense extorted and 
wasted away, an accommodating judge aud jurors, who are 
tools of the gang, are selected by officials who are brother 
members of the same to try the case, and the whole secret gang 
— their press and all — are let loose with a significant sign of 
pillage aud revenge, arrogance and spleen. 

" And thou — curst man or friend, what'ere thou art, 
Who found'stthis burning plague-spot in my heart." 

" Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still slavery ! still thou art 
a bitter draught ; and though thousands in all ages have been 
made to drink of thee, thou art no less bitter on that account. 
I began to figure to myself the miseries of confinement. I was 
going to begin with the millions of ray fellow-creatures born to 
no inheritance but slavery, then I took a single captive, and 
having first shut him up in his dungeon, beheld his body half 



252 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

wasted away with long expectations and confinement, and felt 
what kind of sickness of heart it was which arises from 
hope deferred. Upon looking nearer I saw him pale and fever- 
ish ; in thirty years the western breeze had not once fanned 
his blood, nor had the voice of friend or kinsman breathed 
through his lattice of iron. His children — but here my heart 
began to bleed - and I was forced to go on with another part 
of the portrait. He lifted up a hopeless eye towards the door, 
than cast it down, shook his head, and went on with his work 
of affliction ; he gave a deep sigh — I saw the iron enter into his 
soul — I burst into tears." 

I found the prisoners at the Seatco prison to be about an 
average lot of men — not any more feloneous on the average 
than the same number found at a horse race, a dog fight, or 
picked up promiscuously most anywhere. One of the guards, 
being an old military and naval officer, frequently said that 
" the boys here would average well with those of the army or 
navy during the war," and a prisoner said, he " had left his coat 
hanging in the hall several months with several dollars in the 
pocket, and no one had stolen it yet." However, petty thieves 
or kleptomaniacs — as they are considered when they have in- 
fluence at court — afterwards came and were always with us. 

Many of the prisoners were guilty of the crimes charged 
against them, and freely confessed it ; but knowing of so many 
worse criminals who were acquitted with just as strong proof 
against them, and others who were not even molested, that they 
did not think they had got equal justice, and many of these in- 
tended, when released, to join one or more of the secret " charit- 
able " brotherhoods so that they too could commit crimes with 
impunity. " For, while they (the brethren) never omitted any 
sort of violence, nor any unjust sort of punishment against 
outsiders, as they were not to be moved by pity, and are never 
satisfied with any degree of gain, they were secret partners 
with the worst robbers. For a great many then fell into that 
practice without fear, as having their secret influence for their 
security, and depending on them that they would save them 
harmless in their particular robberies and other crimes, and 
would inflict punishment on their enemies on the smallest 
occasions, and esteem every man that endeavored to lead a 



How TO KuN A Reform Prison. 253 

virtuous life their enemy, arid the knowledge of the possession 
of property or anything desirable to them, is the signal for 
attack." 

Many prisoners also complained of the inequality of sen- 
tences, considering the cases and characters of the men, many 
having the worst of these, and old offenders, too, getting the 
lightest sentences, while others having the best of cases and 
characters, and it being their first and only offense, and more 
accidental than intentional, would get five, ten and fourteen 
years. 

" Who blame, Avhere'er tbey go from pole to pole, 
And for one single blemish damn the whole." 

Other prisoners were innocent of any crime — they being 
simply plundered and thus put out of the way to keep them 
from " making trouble " or being in the way of their midnight 
robbers, they were also very profitable to the contractors — 
these are not convicts, they being hidriapped, not convicted, they are 
the victims of cruel, dastardly persecutions. 

' ' But oh ! what sorrows rend the tender heart. 

With home ' sweet home ' that dearest, darHng child to part." 

"But hear our jjraver — the ruffian sword employ ; 
Drive us — but spare your efforts to decoy ; 
Spare to your \ictims those heart-rending throes, 
Which the poor, cheated self-destroyer knows ! 
The maddening thought that by your arts enticed, 
Our folly drained the bowl which you had spiced, 
And closed their suffering by an easy death. " 

I found that the prisoners were not ironed on account of 
bad conduct, but to save expense in guarding to the contract- 
ors and to gratify their personal love of cruelties by thus ag- 
gravating the prisoners' lot. And this aggravation caused many 
a man in the rage of despair to jump away — more than it ever 
held from it, and they jumped with nothing but bitterness iu 
their souls. 

"Still our bosoms ne'er at rest, 
Thirst for the blood that warms the traitor's breast 
Yet vengeance still sur\'ives, than life more dear, 
Taunts every groan and promjjts the exulting sneer. " 



254: A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

I was told how peaceable men were kept ironed for weeks 
and mouths when even confined to their beds with sickness,- 
and how a dose was forced down one who forthwith died, etc., 
as mere examples of the kind of care and charity accorded the 
helpless sick in their gloom of black misfortune and helpless 
despair. And they knew whereof they spoke, and could 
abundantly Justify in details of facts. 

"There is an inquisition of the heart more cruel in its 
machinery than any ever invented for the body." 

I said that " I did not calculate to stay there but a short 
time, as I was innocent of any crime, having only defended my 
life and home ; and that I could show and prove this so plainly 
that none could honestly doubt it ; that I ivas not convicted but 
shanghaied ; that I was sold and Itetrayed and not defended ; that 
besides this showing I had some friends left who would get up 
a strong petition to the Governor for my restoration." 

But it was prophesied that I " would find it a narrow, 
crooked, miry, stumpy and rocky road to liberty, as others 
with good cases and many friends had failed to get there ; that 
the Governor was evidently secretly interested with the con- 
tractors and others, in holding on to men, because they could 
not get pardoned as was usual from other prisons, or even get 
the abatement of time for good conduct that was common else- 
where, and ahvays in the poiver and province of the Governor to 
bestoiv. 

Some also believed that the Judges were likewise interested 
against the prisoners' justice, as they, too, were willing that in- 
nocent men should suffer at seventy cents a day besides their 
labor. 

That these suspicions were reasonable, I also give this 
from the Press : 

" AiiBANY, N. Y., June 22, 1886, — Judge Nott auuoiiuced to-day iu 
the Albany County Court that he had been approached by Siiperintendent 

, of the Albany penitentiary, -with an ofler of §50, for each long term 

a prisoner was sent there. This attemj^t at bribery created a profound 
sensation." 

It is evident that this Judge and Superintendent did not 
belong to the same secret sworn brotherhood, or he would not 
have dared to expose the business. And at Seatco the prisoners 



I 



How TO KuN A Reform Prison. 255 

were worth $300 or $400 each per year to the gang, and the 
press of the territory, being mostly in the control of the same 
brethren, was muzzled as to such outrages, except to deny 
their existence. 

The following day after my arrival I was taken out to the 
blacksmith-shop where the irons I had on were cut oflf, and a 
pair of heavier ones substituted, they being connected with a 
chain long enough to step ; reports were then sent out that 
" this was done because I was such a bad, desperate man." 

"To impress terror on their feelings by every atrocious cruelty that 
could deter them from expressing their disapproliation of these excesses." 

And a censorship was placed on the victims' correspond- 
ence so as to bury the truth and make this a secret prison. 

I was then set to work in the cooper-shop — they wanted 
to make a cooper of me so I would be a profit to the gang of 
82 or $3 a day. It is evident that they knew in advance, in a 
secret u'ciy, that the Governor would hold on to me, though 
hioioiiuj I was shanghaied and never convicted. However, I did 
not owe the devils anything, and therefore I was no mechanic ; 
finding I was no account as a cooper, I was given the job of 
sawing ofi" the ends of the staves for the others to cooper ; this 
was a good job for the place, and I retained it as long as I 
worked in the shop — about a year. 

The coopers were given tasks, being about three-quarters 
of what would be a Journeymen's days work at $3 a day. But 
it should always be remembered that the inquisition of the 
mind that many prisoners sufier on account of their persecu- 
tions, is enough for them to endure without being compelled to 
labor at all, iclierein they can liave no possible interest ; " Doomed 
to deal out, forbidden to enjoy." And then, they suffer for not 
having the vacations and recreations, and suitable fare that 
others enjoy ; therefore prisoners should not be required to do 
more than half a regular days ivork, unless it be intended to 
break them down and drive them to the frenzy of despair and 
set them against icork the rest of their Hues, as was done in many 
cases at Seatco, and these too, who had been industrious workers 
all their lives. 

Influential members of secret charitable brotherhoods, 



256 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

when in prison for a time, never work much, and their health is 
hefter than other prisoners' loho ivorh hard. There are other 
modes of exercise besides that of unjxiid, thankless toil, and this 
toil is rarely any benefit to the State. It is stolen hy the gang 
who never work themselves, and if they drank less whiskey 
would be in pretty good health. 

A cooper here kept an account of what he earned for this 
secret gang. It amounted to about $3,500, and although he 
had never been punished — except as all others in a general 
way — and never openly charged with any misconduct, yet he 
could not get even the abatement of time provided by law. 
How does this " benefit society ? " 

As an example of how they would take the advantage of 
one's ignorance and industry I give this : Prisoners were issued 
some tobacco each week, but not enough for those much ad- 
dicted to its use, so one of the coopers told the superintendent 
that he would make an extra barrel each day for a week if he 
would give him twenty-five cents worth of tobacco. "I Avill do it, 
byG-o-a-d," was the reply, and at the end of the week he paid 
it, and then told the victim to "just keep on making four 
barrels a day, as that would be his task thereafter, without any 
extra tobacco." 

But for the reasons heretofore given this was more than 
he could do and do well, and consequently stood siege after 
siege of bread and water punishment, he being driven to retali- 
ate with bad work, etc., etc., and they had to take him out of 
the shop and put him at common work ; and when his time had 
rightfully expired, he was kept on several months longer (at 
seventy cents a day and his labor) " because of his bad con- 
duct." 

This bread and water punishment was to put a man into a 
darkened cell without a bed, and starve and in winter freeze 
him for from one to twenty days at a time. There should never 
and need never be any worse punishment for even real devils 
and the worst cases in prison. Tliis ought not to he forgotten. 
This was supposed to be the only punishment at Seatco ; but 
prisoners were tortured there in various other ways also. 



How TO Run a Reform Prison. 257 

" Where o'er ber sLambles, 

Torture pants for breath, 

And ^vhere to look, to think, is death." 

So grasping were the contractors that they would work 
men on the verge of the grave. One being ill and unable to 
work was thrust in the bread and water cell, as was frequently 
done ; when let out he was insane ; he lay in his cell a few days 
with his clothes on and uncared for, when I helped him up to the 
hall and got him into the " hospital " (?) tailor and shoe-shop — 
ivMcli was all one. He did not know anyone, and was picking 
his clothes and begging for water ; he had typhoid-pneumonia. 
While in the bread and water cell, for days he drank dirty 
water to slake his burning thirst. He finally, by a mere scratch, 
recovered, but was unable to walk without crutches for a long 
time. He said that I had saved his life. This was when an 
ex-Governor was the Doctor. 

" We know the savage for what he is, the same every- 
where, the same ruthless, cruel, blood-thirsty, treacherous and 
tyrannical animal, ruling only by the strong hand, and with no 
innate conception of goodness or virtue." 

Others were forced out to work when ill, and soon after- 
wards died. 

A man was sick for over a year, so that he frequently 
had to be assisted to walk ; yet he was kept in heavy double 
irons all the time. After the prisoners were finally taken 
away from the contractors, he got full abatement of time for 
" his uniform good conduct " in spite of the abuse tending to 
drive a victim to desperation. 

As an example of how trifling and aggravating these masons 
were, I give this : Every one was expected to furnish his own 
comb ; but as one prisoner came in they kept his comb. It 
was a broken piece, but was all he had, and he wanted it ; so 
they trifled, lied and humbugged him about it till he re- 
fused to " go out to work until he got it ; " consequently they 
kept him on bread and water (a very little bread) sixty-three 
out of sixty-eight days till he was almost dead and could hardly 
walk, then they gave him the comb, and he resumed work. He 
was a pious man and had been a preacher. 

Another was treated the same way over a little tobacco ; 

17 



258 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 



he finally got his tobacco and resumed work — he had been a 
Sheriff. 

"Spirits of fire, that brood not long, 
But flash resentment back for wrong, 
And hearts "where, slow but deej^, the seeds, 
Of vengeance ripen into deeds." 

" Know their rights and kno^ving dare maintain." 

Even when prisoners are wrong in such little things, it 
should alioays he considered that they may he in a stress of mind 
that makes them morally irresponsihle for ivhat they may do, a7id 
are not really themselves. Only tyrants and devils will aggravate 
and then torture men when in such a frenzied condition. 

A prisoner was keeping a diary of what transpired at 
Seatco, but the warden took it from him with a severe warning 
to uncover nothing of their evil doings if he valued his liberty. 
They ivere midnight rnen and they icanted to make this a secret 
prison. 

I was taken from the cooper-shop and set to clearing land 
and farming ; the devils not content with ravaging the home I 
had made before, they wanted me to build and work another 
for them to enjoy. But I was worn down and had also learned 
as much as an Indian by this time, and considered home-build- 
ing a humbug, so I did not build very well or speedily. There- 
fore they cut the irons off, and turned me loose to work in and 
have charge of the dining-room, etc., and of the other prisoners 
while at their meals. I now ate in the kitchen, and lived as 
well as the guards or anybody on the ranch. 

I could have run away from the prison almost any day, as 
I was given no limits, and could go fishing between meals and 
my work. But conscious of my innocence I felt that I must 
surely get out without running, and I was doing all I could to 
this end, as will hereafter appear ; and that the road was in- 
deed "narrow, crooked, miry, stum i:)y, rocky," and ambushed 
with mystic devils armed with poisoned arrows that they shot 
in the dark. 

After being in the dining-room, etc., for about two years, I, 
with others, was employed by a sub-contractor at seventy-five 
cents a day to build a store and dwelling house by the rail- 



How TO EuN A Reform Prison. 259 

road. One day, when this was about completed, while I was 
burning a pile of logs in the brush some distance from the 
building, one of the prisoners, having about a lifetime sentence, 
skipped out, and holding that I knew of his going, and had 
seen him pass by without giving an alarm, I must be punished 
accordingly, as was usual in such cases ; though I had told 
them at the outset that " / icouhl not guard a felloiv-prisoner 
from his liberty." So, for revenge, I was put in double irons 
again, given a nine foot saw to run alone, and was to be con- 
sidered and run like a saw-mill rushed with orders — to make 
wood for the railroad. 

Oh ! my countrymen, what a saw-mill ! ! 

The guard-and-chief-worthy-grand-master was drunk and 
mad ; in fact, he was always drunk and mad ; he drank a quart 
of bad whiskey every day, but he could not ruu that saw-mill 
to a profit. So he drank more whiskey and died. And the 
escaped prisoner was never caught. 

" He neither stayed to soothe or force. 
But wisely stole away." 

I was then transferred to the tailor-shop, where I slept; 
but I was a poor tailor — then to the kitchen, but I Avas a very 
poor cook. So not being fit for anything else, I was made 
room warden — that is I had charge of the big hall, and to a 
great extent over the conduct of all the prisoners while they 
were in it — about one-third of the daytime — which position I 
retained during the last several years at Seatco, and I do not 
think that any prisoner thus employed ever got along better 
with both prisoners and such officials, as will hereafter ap- 
pear. 

However, with all of his meanness and thievery in other 
respects, the warden was good to work under — that is to those 
engaged on the inside. I do not know of his ever finding any 
fault with any of my work, or much with that of others, 
and he was my boss the most of the time I was in prison ; he 
would frequently tell me to tell the guards " to go to hell" etc., 
if they assumed any authority over me. 

This hall was the only redeeming feature of the Seatco 
institution ; it gave all an opportunity to exchange reading 
matter, and to acquaint themselves with the knowledge and 



260 A PlLGKIMAGE IN HeLL. 



experiences of the others, and many of them had had lots of it 
besides their experiences with lawyers and courts that give the 
worst characters the lightest sentences, bankrujDts and convicts 
the innocent, and charges $900 to settle a disjDute over a $9 
calf, and gives an outsider against a midnight-man no justice 
at any price. 

Such free association of po-isoners {and rteivspapers) should he 
granted, let it be understood, to enable them to keep up ivith the 
times, so as to hold some ground against the world whose 
spotted hands are to be ever raised against them. 

Some of them were arouud-the-world sailors ; one was 
with the ill-fated Polaris and six months on an ice-floe ; some 
had been through the war on either side and that with Mexico, 
and wore the scars ; one was wounded as was Garfield, and re- 
covered without any fuss or physicians ; one was a brother of 
and on the staff of a famed general ; another was with Walker 
in his expeditions to Mexico and Central America ; nearly every 
nationality and country was represented, and a Mohammedan 
who wished himself back in India, and there were Indians of 
many tribes. 

Many of the inmates were ravaged home-builders ; then 
there were professional sports and criminals, who, when guilty, 
stood their imprisonment best ; home-builders stood theirs the 
worst — they " wanted to go home ! " Men who strike out in a 
wilderness to carve out homes with their own hard labor are 
not criminals, nor are they cowards or cringing slaves. 

One of these had put the proceeds of two farms in the 
States, and six years hard labor into a home, and considered 
himself worth $50,000, when the masons robbed him of it, and 
shanghaied him here to keep him from " making trouble " 
about it, and his wife and children had to work out for a living. 
He was advised that he would be pardoned (?) if he would not 
return to recover his own. His sentence was ten years. He 
was held several years till the plunder was secured, and the 
thieves could say, " Damn you, you can't ^it^ove that we did it," 
and his friends had delivered up their property too, then 
he was granted a new trial, and declared to be " innocent 
of any crime." And masons say, " We have a good Judi- 
ciary." Other victims could never get any trial as tliey 



How TO iiuN A Eefokm Prison. 261 

could ^' prove tliat ihey did it,'' and thus "make trouble." 
So these had to sufier prolonged miseries not to be described 
in their gloom of black misfortune. Quite a number of mere 
boys were also inmates at seventy cents a day and their labor, 
and they went out much worse than when they came. One 
had honestly made and saved and loaned $200 or $300, which 
he would lose if not released a short time before his time ex- 
pired, and he begged the Governor to allow him to preserve it, 
but the Governor being his enemy, held him to the last day, and 
though the people (without any daylight opposition) had 
strongly petitioned for his release also. But what do black-leg 
officials care for the mere will of the people, or the well-being 
of outsiders. 

" They sneer at pleading virtue's tearful eye — the ' cold sneer which si^eaks 

the cankered heart,' 
And themselves are guilty of ' Crimes which load the groaning earth with 

shame. ' " 

And there were men fifty to sixty, and even seventy years 
old who had never been even arrested before, and were inno- 
cent yet. But practical masonry in its greed and " charity " (?) 
robs the cradle and the grave. 

And there were insane men who were beaten and kicked ; 
one such, however, was not ; for he would have killed his tor- 
menter too quick and sui e. 

There ranged from about fifty-five to one hundred prisoners 
at a time, but several would come and go nearly every month — as 
many as one could be intimately acquainted with and their 
various cases. I frequently assisted them in their correspond- 
ence as to their cases, etc., and know whereof I write as to the 
same. 

About two-thirds were native born. About twenty per 
cent, were innocent. Over fifty per cent, of those who were 
guilty were caused directly or indirectly by whiskey. And 
many who were innocent had only dared to defend them- 
selves against whiskey. 

A majority of the prisoners would vote for prohibition of 
whiskey. 

About twenty per cent, of those who were guilty were 
natural born criminals and generally calculated to join, after 



262 A PiLGKIMAGE IN HeLL. 



their release, some secret cliaritable gang, " so that they too 
would have overpowering influence at court, and could commit 
crime with impunity." 

Imprisonment will never reform even those who need re- 
forming, until the courts and prison officials and Governors are 
reformed — they being worse criminals than the worst they 
send and hold in prison. It is amazing that facts so simple and 
vital should not be obvious to all. 

" Tlie wise may preacli, but wiser nature shows 

That half our heroes but frora midnight scoundrels rose." 

For the last S3veral years the big hall in the prison, when 
all were in, resembled a western saloon except the bar ; card 
playing, with Faro and other gambling games, checkers, chess, 
etc. ; reading and talking, chewing and smoking, and sometimes 
singing and dancing, with an occasional fight. However, but 
one man was ever thus laid up for repairs — this being done to 
the " hardest case in the prison " by " the most peaceable and 
meek of all " — with a knife. 

They did their own butchering at Seatco, and so grasping 
were these charitable brethren that they did this on Sunday, 
and they frequently used stock that had been killed by the 
railroad or was suffering from disease. 

This prison was different from any other in the world, 
there was no discipline, or humanity, or care for reform; but 
rather a school for crime ; the officials being teachers by pre- 
cept and example — the Governor being worthy-grand-high-chief 
of villainy. Work and money was all they wanted. They were 
a grasping, vulgar, smutty-mouthed, profane, card-playing, 
lying, drunken, brutal outfit of masons. 

Every means was used to prevent prisoners from getting 
out legitimately — the Governor being a willing tool. 

These official gentlemen would alienate prisoners from 
their friends in ways that were dark and cruel, and the petty 
tricks, juggles, frauds and cold-blooded lying one had to suffer, 
was a burning torment to the brain. By preventing them from 
writing, by holding back and squelching their letters, by lying 
about their conduct and their cases. For example : A prisoner's 
folks had written to him in regard to his appealing his case to 



How TO Run a Reform Prison. 263 

the supreme court, and registered tlie letter ; this was held back 
for over a year till it was too late to do him any good. Another, 
on hearing that the Governor was going to a place near where 
his folks were, wrote to his wife accordingly, so she could meet 
and plead his case to him ; this was held back till the Governor 
had returned. 

And many letters were never heard from at all. 

They took all the writing material they could find from 
the prisoners (they robbed them of it) and made it a rule that 
none should write more than one letter a month. 

This I say was evidently done to alienate them from their 
friends and a helping hand; as though friends at such times 
didn't drop off fast enough anyway, and also to prevent victims 
of the gangs from maJdng their cases known and thus " make 
trouble " by exposing their villainy, and as though they 
could not squelch and steal letters fast enough as it was. 

Will you just think of the condition of men who were un- 
expectedly convicted? Their business and family matters un- 
settled ; and having been betrayed and sold by their attorneys, 
their cases not worked up so as to enable them to properly 
present them to the deaf and stony-hearted, grasping and high- 
priced executive, or higher court ; and gangs of robbers left 
free-handed and encouraged to ravage their unprotected homes, 
property, and families — from whom they have been kidnapped 
and torn by j^rostituting the courts, and ^cith whom they are 
now to be cut off from all certain communication. 

And then, for the Governor to give as a reason for holding 
them in such secret bastile, that "they might make trouble" 
with these same court-prostitu ting-home -ravagers and thieves 
— his brethren ! 

And, moreover, although there was a daily mail, it was 
only delivered once a week, if at all, and they frequently held 
back from mailing for a week or a month that which was handed 
out to mail — if they sent it at all. 

For example : A prisoner wrote and handed out a letter 
March 19; not hearing from it iu a month he wrote to the same 
person again April 21, he paying for the registering of each. 
It transpired that they were mailed together Ajiril 29th, thus 
holding back the first one about six weeks and the other eight days. 



264 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

Another letter was written and handed out July 27, mailed 
August 18 — held back twenty-two days. 

Another was written November 23, to a Judge, and held 
back till December 5. 

Just think of the torment— the inquisition of the mind of 
men thus treated while languishing in prison, and often in a 
dying condition ! 

A man was held for a cancer to gnaw his lip, face and life 
away. His neighbors petitioned in vain for his restoration at 
the outset of the cancer, when it could have been cut out. He 
finally put up a large sum of money to get out, and after tor- 
turing delays was released to die such a death. He was an 
old pioneer and a good citizen. 

A man complained to a visiting member of the legislature 
that he had sent thirteen letters without hearing from any, and 
asked him to smuggle one out and mail it for him, which 
he willingly did, and it brought a reply. 

Frequently guards, ministers and other visitors, and others 
intimate with prisoners would do this. This loas real charity to 
the oppressed, and better than armloads of tracts and sermons. 

Sometimes letters were thrown onto passing trains, or 
dropped on the road— trusting to tramps and Providence. 

A sick prisoner whose illness the ofl&cials and prison doctor 
would not recognize, wrote to an eminent physician to come 
and give him a thorough examination and prescribe for him ; 
this they would not sent. Yet, when they themselves were 
sick — as they were with horrible diseases — they discarded the 
prison doctors for others, as more competent to treat them. 
Letters were smuggled to wives, brothers, sisters, etc.; and to 
judges, ministers, members of the legislatures, editors, etc. 

But it was difficult to make even one's own friends at a dis- 
tance understand the horrible condition of affairs, and that the 
Governor was so loyal to the gang. One said, that he could 
not make " his own mother comprehend this." And editors, 
etc., being generally of the same brotherhood, were therefore 
loath to expose its crimes and cruelties ; though occasionally 
some of the press had something to say in condemnation of the 
Seatco secret hell, clippings of which I have preserved, as will 



How TO KuN A Reform Prison. 265 

hereafter appear, though such papers were generally squelched 
from the prisoners. 

Of course, a Governor, ivith hut the pardoning poiuer alone, 
can correct any prison abuse, and has oppo^iunities to shoiv the same 
to the people. 

A prisoner undertook to register his letters ; they were of 
vital importance and he wanted them to go. This was opposed 
on one false pretext after another, until they found that he 
could get them out in some other way unknown to them. But 
then they would frequently delay mailing them, refuse to give 
up receipts, or squelch the letters entirely, or the answers to 
them. Anyway, many answers were written and mailed but 
not received. He also undertook to send a statement or 
epitome of his case to a friend to publish ; this the warden 
frequently declared he "did mail and register," and he charged 
for it accordingly ; but he " forgot (?) the receipt." No return 
receipt came ; he would not permit the matter to be traced up, 
and the M. S. S. was not received. So he evidently stole it. 
It had cost the prisoner $5 to get a copy of it to the Executive 
office. I will give this epitome to the reader in due course. 

Complaints were made to the Governor of such abuses, 
but they might just as well have been made to the devil. He 
did not want the true cases of innocent prisoners to he made hioicn 
to the public, as this might alleviate their sufferings, compel their 
release, and bring condemnation on the gang. 

It appeared that the Insane asylum was also run by a gang 
of midnight gentry, and that letters of the inmates were treated 
in the same manner as here. But one of the sane persons they 
were holding, managed to live to get hei* liberty in some way, 
and by writing a pamphlet and otherwise agitating the masonic 
abuses, got, after much opposition and by fighting it through 
personally, the following law passed by the legislature. 

The Insane Asylum Act. 

The following is the text of the law "to protect inmates of insane 
asylums." 

Sec. 1. Be it enacted, etc.. That henceforth there shall be no censor- 
ehii? exercised over the correspondence of the inmates of insane asylums, 
except as to the letters to them directed, but their other post office rights 
shall be as free and unrestrained as are those of any other resident, or 



266 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

citizen of our Territory, and be under the protection of the same postal 
laws. And every inmate shall be allowed to write one letter per week, to 
any person he or she may choose. And it is hereby made the duty of the 
superintendent to furnish each and every inmate of each and every insane 
asylum, both pubhc and private iu the Territory of Washington, Avith suit- 
able material for writing, enclosing, seahng, 6tamj)ing and maihng letters, 
sufficient for the writing of one f our-jiage letter a week, j^rovided they re- 
quest the same, iinlcss they are otherwise furnished with it; and all these 
letters shall be droj^jjed by the writers themselves, accompanied by an at- 
tendant when necessary, into a post office box, proAided by the Territory 
at the institution, iu some place easily accessible to all the patients; and 
the contents of these boxes shall be collected at least as often as once in 
each Aveek, by an authorized post office agent. And it is hereby made the 
duty of the superintendent of every insane asylum in the Tenitory of Wash- 
ington both public and private, to dehver or cause to be dehvered to said 
person, any letter or writing to him or her directed, provided the physician 
in charge does not consider the contents of such letter dangerous to the 
mental condition of the jiatient. 

Sec. 2. That in the event of the sudden or mysterious death of any 
inmate of any insane asylum, either public or private, in the Territory of 
Washington, such fact shall be rejiorted by the superintendent thereof to 
the coroner of the county in which such death occurs, or to the nearest 
justice of the peace therein, and a coroner's inquest shall be held as pro- 
vided by law in other cases. And in all asyhim investigations, the testimony 
of any person offered as a witness, whether sane or insane, shall be com- 
l^etent, and the court and jtiry shall be the sole judges of the credibility of 
such testimony. 

Sec. 3. That any jierson refusing or neglecting to comply with, or 
■willfully and knowingly violating any of the pro\-ision3 of this act, shall 
upon convection thereof, be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary 
for a term not exceeding three years, or by fine not exceeding five hundred 
dollars, or both at the discretion of the court, and shall be ineligible to any 
office in the institution afterward. 

If the coroner, or justice of the peace, court, or jury were 
sworn secret-brethren to those who had poisoned or otherwise 
murdered or abused inmates, then of what avail would be sec. 
2 of the law, or sec. 1, either ? 

The sane inmate they had held, endeavored to have the 
mail addressed to the inmates, protected in the same way, but 
the ring influence was too strong. Wlien thus amended tins should 
be the laiu as to all prisons, and *^ charitable" (?) brethren should be 
disqualified /or office. 

All reasons and excuses against such a law are flimsy and 



I 



How TO Run a Reform Prison. 2G7 

false and against equal justice. No hlack-leg official should be 
allowed to touch a letter addressed to or by a jjrisoner. 

Remember that even guilty prisoners are not worse than 
other men, whose persons are held sacred against the laws they 
violate with impunity ! 

And whether they are or not, none but a tyrant and thief 
would deny them a public hearing, and let the 'people judge. 
And if such a law was universal and enforced, thousands of inno- 
cent and sane prisoners would at least be heard from, who have 
never yet had a hearing and are languishing in secret prisons in 
the agony of despair ! 

When everybody know^s that the courts and other functions 
of government, with a servile press, are used as machines to 
shield the worst and most dangerous criminals, and to plunder 
and ravage for the gang, that they are sinks of prostitution, 
rotten with crime and soaked with the hearts' blood of the in- 
nocent, will the 2)eople not thenfore see to it, that these innocent vic- 
tims shall at least have a hearing ? 

Freedom of speech and correspondence are completely an- 
nihilated, and tlteir lives are in perpetual danger, while their pre- 
carious existence depends upon the fraud or violence of every- 
thing that approaches them. And their mental faculties, that 
should aid their individual and corporal weakness, are unculti- 
vated and neglected /or ivant of communication ivith their flloiv- 
creatures. 

Do not he too much deafened by the chatter, poAver and in- 
fluence of the gang, to hear the still voice of personal anguisli. 
At least think of those ivho are languishing and dying icithout a 
hearing, while you are reading this ! 

Though secret-ring men are seldom prosecuted for their 
crimes, except in a farcical way, for a blind, and to tuin the 
people's money into their pockets, yet, when one's crime has be- 
come too notorious, and the people are watching, in spite of 
them and their press to hide it or give it another name, they 
may apparently permit him to be punished as other men. — As 
example : There was one such, who got one year at Seatco 
while another man, for the same kind of offense, but who was 
less guilty, had four and a half years. The gentleman was turn- 
ed into the hall, with the rest of us, to amuse himself for a 



268 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

couple of days, with a bottle of whiskey and liis pistol in his 
pockets ; then he was turned out to go about the country and 
live and attend to his business as he pleased. There was no 
censorship exercised over his correspondence. He was an 
auctioneer and surveyor, and got such employment about the 
country while a prisoner. 

The people living near the prison became favorably im- 
pressed with many of the prisoners, who were frequently en- 
gaged to work for them on their release without any prejudice, 
and sometimes married into their families. One, thus, to his 
eternal shame, became related to one of the prison contractors. 
He did his courting while a prisoner. 

Another example of a secret ring man who had followed an 
unarmed man up while on his way home with some friends, 
and shot him dead. The people wanted to lynch him, but he 
being one of the gang, he was released on bail, and about a 
year afterwards was sentenced to two and a half years ; but 
belonging to the same brotherhood as the Governor, he soon 
pardoned him out, while spurning justice and the expressed 
will of the people, to release others who had never been guilty 
at all. And he knew it. 

For years no minister preached to the prisoners. I re- 
member one calling in to visit them ; the warden let him in the 
hall and then stood in the door watching him as though afraid 
he would steal something, which so annoyed the preacher (as 
was intended) that he soon left, saying, that " the warden evi- 
dently considered him an intruder, and wanted him to leave." 
Another preacher said that he " would come and preach to the 
boys if he could get his horse fed and his dinner, but that they 
would not tlnis accommodate him," so he did not come. 

Finally, the legislature provided for two preachers, each to 
visit the prison once a month, and under this provision we had 
five or six different ones. They were reminded that the oth- 
cials and Governor needed reforming more than their prisoners 
which, after becoming acquainted with both, they found out 
themselves and so declared. 

Some of them took a practical interest in the prisoners, 
and on learning how their letters were stolen, would take out 
letters for them, and would also write letters in their behalf. 



I 



How TO KuN A Refokm Prison. 269 

One "went to see the Governor as to what was required to 

secure the release of one of the innocent prisoners (Mr. D ) 

whose case he (the preacher) had investif^ated and found to be 
so. His Excellency put him off with " Oh, yes ; I have seen 
Mr. D , and he told me all about his case. I am consider- 
ing it, good-day." He had never exchanged a single ivord with 
the prisoner about his case. The fact was, these ring Governors 
did not want to know of a prisoner's innocence, and would sneer 
at and close their ears and eyes to the most jjositive proof there- 
of ; and the plaintive wails of their helpless suffering victims 
was as music to their little cankered souls. The Judiciary 
being a part of the gang, was good to them and " must be up- 
held." 

Mr. Parker was the bravest, and most earnest and practi- 
cal of any minister that we had, and we were all always so glad 
to see him come and visit us ; he would condemn the black- 
legs as frankly as did any x^risoner, and he tried to get the 
warden removed, and get some one with some good morals in 
his place ; said that he " had written several letters to the 
Governor making serious charges against the officials, but that 
he (the Governor) would not even answer his letters." Then 
he applied to the legislature to reform the abuses, to which his 
Excellency (?) replied by bouncing Mr. Parker. I believe that 
the Governor was virtually sworn to shield the other officials, 
as they belonged to the same oath-bound society. 

No evangelist need, however, to expect the confidence, or 
even respect, of prisoners who will not openly condemn official 
criminals, and advocate justice to their victims. 

Mr. Parker had been so prejudiced or rather misinformed 
as to these prisoners that he was very timid on his first visit to 
them, as though afraid of his life, and was accompanied in the 
hall with a guard ; he stopped near the door, delivered his 
sermon, and got out as quick as one would from a den of lions. 
But by the next time he came he had informed himself and 
came in alone, and then, as ever afterwards, went the length of 
the hall shaking hands in familiar intercourse and getting 
acquainted with as many as he could, and did his preaching at 
the further end of the hall. He would thus prolong his visits 
declaring that " the association of the prisoners as a whole, 



270 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

was much moi'e congenial to liim than that of the officials who 
would rather play cards and talk smut than to hear him or the 
others pi each morality and justice," and they did so at the 
same time in an adjoining room. The other ministers were 
also very good and sociable and all that ; but they were afraid 
to oppose and fight the devil ivhere he had any poiuer, and were 
therefore of little practical use. 

There was a board of prison directors, including the Gov- 
ernor, but as they were brother masons to the contractors, 
they played a very silly and cruel farce. Such boards of breth- 
ren are a useless expense to the peopile ; they are loorse than useless^ 
for they can screen and whitewash abuses and blind the people. 

I remember a picnic party visiting the prison on a 4th of 
July; their sociability, the songs they and the prisoners sang, and 
the kindly feeling they manifested to them on seeing and learn- 
ing some of the cruelties practiced here by secret villainy — 
some weeping ; the superintendent growled out that he 
" wished the}^ Avould stay away and not be slinging their snot 
around here," He was pretty drunk, but drunk or sober, this 
expressed his style and feeling. 

A sick prisoner pleading to him to be excused from work, 
using the names of the doctor and Governor, would get in re- 
ply, " By G-o-a-d, / am the doctor ! / am the Governor, and / 
am the lau\ too, by G-o-a-d ! " And so he was. A whole 
community would earnestly petition the Governor to justly 
restore a prisoner to them, but in vain, against the crook of this 
animal's little finger. 

He would promise prisoners to assist them in getting re- 
leased, and then evidently oppose it. He promised one that 
" if he would keep quiet and work faithfully for two years he 
would then take hold and assist him to get released,'' and poor 
Ben believed it. No man was more " quiet " or worked more 
faithfully than he ; so when the two long, weary years were 
thus woi'ked and suffered out, he suggested to the gentleman 
that he make the promised effort, and got this in return, 
" Oh ! if I was in your place, Ben, I wouldn't bother the Gov- 
ernor about it — there is France ! if he had not been so 
anxious about it he would have been out l-o-n-g ago." France 
had then been in about two and a half years, and poor, honest 



J 




Sick Prisoner. 

"You go to work! for /am the Doctor, the Governor, and the law too!' 



(271) 



272 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

Ben is not released yet. He was a peaceable, liard-working, 
honest man all of his life, is a cripple, and in repelling a bad 
assault shot his assailant and he died. He was told that " if 
he would swear that his assailant was reaching behind him (as 
others do) he would probably come clear, otherwise they might 
hang him;" he replied that "they might hang him but he 
would not lie," and he got fourteen years in prison accordingly. 
This, while other men had killed their man in cold blood and 
were acquitted, or not even tried at all. He had the same 
shyster lawyers that did me up, and they were a curse to him 
also. They took all of his property except $50, which one of 
them was to collect and send to him ; but he could never get 
even a reply to any one of a dozen letters ; and when he even 
begged for enough to buy a few postage stamps. Now, if a 
black-leg Governor thought he would want to collect that $50, 
he would hold him till the last minute to keep him from " be- 
ing troublesome " to a brother thief. 

An inexperienced man is easily convicted when his lawyers 
are traitors, and they so often are. For example I give this : An 
old, hard-working, prosperous settler was jerked up and thrown 
into the grasp of the " law," and was told by his lawyer — " an 
honored member of the bar" — at "trial" that he "could not 
be sworn in his own behalf," and was like\vise kept from prov- 
ing an alibi ; so there was no evidence in his own behalf, and he 
got twelve years at Seatco. Just because two of the gang 
swore that he had assaulted one of them with a shot gun ; 
when, in fact, he was at a place six miles away at the time the 
assault was said to have been made (though there was no 
wound) which alibi was afterwards established. Yet the ring 
Governor replied that " we have a good Judiciary which must 
be upheld." 

If the Judiciary was good, it would not be run by black- 
leg shysters ; nor would the testimony of midnight conspirators 
be taken as evidence against other men ; nor would members 
of the gang select the jury. 

"The law is a sort of hocus-pocus science, that smiles in 
your face while it picks your pocket, and the glorious uncer- 
tainty of it is of more use to the professors, than the justice of 
it." 



How TO EuN A REFORAr Prison. 273 

" AutI, indeed, the greatest imrt of mankind are so far from liA-iug ac- 
cording to tlie laws, that they hardly know them ; but when they have 
sinned, they learn from others that they have transgressed the law. Those 
also who are in the highest and pnm'ii)al posts t)f the Government confess 
they are not acquainted with those laws, and are obliged to take such 
jjersons for their assessors in jJubUc administrations as profess to have 
skill in those laws." 

"If any Judges take bribes, their punishment is death. And he that 
overlooks one that offers him a petition, and this when he is able to reUeve 
him, he is a guilty person. — Laws of Moses." 

As to Seatco fare : They would kill beef aud salt it dowu 
a year ahead, using too much saltpetre ; and then it would 
often be spoiled. Some spoiled meat was shown to the Gov- 
ernor who declared " that it was good ! " right in the face of 
seventy -five men who knew he lied, and he knew that they 
knew he lied. Should the testimony of such men be taken as 
evidence in or out of court ? 

The cook told the superintendent that " the men would 
not eat that meat. ' " Well," he replied, " send it back again." 
" But suppose they don't eat it then ? " " Well, by G-o-a-d, 
youjiisf send it hack till they do eat it." 

They had plenty of ground, and plenty of labor that the 
people paid them seventy cents a day for using, so they had 
plenty of common vegetables ; but with little or nothing to 
cook with them it was like hog feed, and old potatoes were 
sometimes used two or three months after their season. 

Sometimes a part of the men would refuse to work on ac- 
count of the poor grub, and consequently go on bread and 
water — which they would say was *' about all they were getting 
anyway." But this not being as profitable as their labor, the 
fare would improve a little. And then on account of such 
"misconduct" their abatement of time rightfully earned, would 
be denied them. But they did not thus lose very much, /or 
nobody got such abatement oj time, with very rare exceptions— ]\\9,i 
enough to swear by, aud create false hopes in others. 

Here is an example or two of " bad conduct " reports : A 

couple of boys had come for five years ; had put in the most of 

the time ; had never been punished or charged with an}- bad 

conduct, and were trustees — could go where they liked so they 

18 



274 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 



did not neglect their work ; their friends got a good petition for 
their pardon — including the injured party — and one of them 
took it to the Governor. The Governor told him if he would 
get a certificate from the prison superintendent - (always one 
of the contractors) — of their good conduct there, he " would let 
them go." So the friend proceeded to the prison, where he 
saw for himself how the boys were trusted, etc.; he then made 
his request to the superintendent who was thus forced to admit 
the good conduct of the boys ; but instead of giving the friend 
a certificate in accordance with the same, he promised to 
" forthwith write and mail it to the Governor." The boys not 
being released, the friend made another visit to the Governor, 
and there found their conduct certified to be " uni/ormh/ had." 
This everybody thereabouts and the Governor himself hieio to 
be false ; but it was " official " and done for a pretext to stab 
justice and the expressed ivill of the people. The boys were then 
told that " it was useless to bother the Governor any more about 
it for he would not let them go," and he didn't ; though they 
got some abatement of time on account of their conduct being 
"uniformly good." 

The friends of a prisoner who was working in the sash 
and door factory, on applying for his release, got from the 
Governor, as a reason for den^nng their petition, "that he had 
broken some machiner}-," this was the first that he or any of his 
associates had heard of any such thing. It was false, but it was 
"official," and being from a secret brother, it was " lawful," and 
a lie. A prisoner paid a lawyer $10, and in various other ways 
tried to get a brief of whatever was on file at the executive office 
concerning him, but utterly failed to get it done. The Governor 
loould squelch petitions and other documents that ivere favorable to 
a prisoner. 

Prisoners were promised (by the officials) certificates of 
good conduct and also recommendations for pardon, and in 
some cases it was declared that this " had been done," and yet 
the Governor would declare to their friends that " their con- 
duct was bad," as an excuse for holding them against the sober 
second thought of the people. 

" In whatever manner governments insensibly grow among 
mankind, the power consists in the aggregate mass of the 



How TO Run a Reform Prison. 275 

people, though it is exercised by the few who are trusted with 
it, aud who would cease to have any power at all to exercise, if 
the people should refuse to obey and to enforce their authority. 
It is clear, therefore, that the Governors were made for (lie 
governed, and that it is an abuse of the Institution lulienever the 
happiness of the governed is made subservient to that of the Gov- 
ernor s^ 

The chief officer of the Bastile being always interested 
against a prisoner's justice, and considering the kind of creat- 
ures they were anyway, it was outrageous and masonry to 
allow him to be " Governor, Doctor, and the Law, by G-o-a-d ! " 
• The Governor and company ivere thus the most cruel, relent- 
less enemies in advance to a prisoner ; he did not make tJiem so, re- 
member ; they were already made so, and thirsting for his 
heart's blood ! 

The Governor could easily know the true conduct of any 
man there, if he cared to know, and he generally did know it in 
spite of himself. 

However, their conduct as citizens at home, and justice, 
which whole communities knew, and frequently testified to, 
would interest and govern him more if he was a good citizen 
himself and an honest official. 

Many of the guards, from first to last, were pretty good 
men and some were first class ; but such did not often remain 
long ; while the worst were never discharged and never quit. 
They, however, sometimes died — drinking themselves to death. 
They would take a quart bottle of whiskey with them every 
day, aud for months at a time did not draw a sober breath. 

The " Governor-doctor-and-law " gentleman finally got 
down also ; his toes rotting off, and his legs were cut off just 
where he had riveted heavy irons on so many innocent suffer- 
ing victims, who now felt that " Heaven is sometimes just, and 
pays us back in measures that we mete." 

" Though the mills of God grind slowly. 
Yet they grind exceedingly small ; 
Though ^Wth patience he stands waiting, 
With exactness grinds he all." 

If honestly dealt with, half of the prisoners would not run 
away, were they not guarded at all. I give an example. A 



276 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

guard, who was always good to the boys, while working a gang 
of eight or ten in the woods, fell asleep, and thus slept till the 
superintendent was seen approaching, when one of the men 
woke him up " for Old Shead is coming." There was but two 
in the gang that wanted to run away, but they would not do so 
from Lon, but did afterwards from other guards. One of the 
superintendents refused to give men who were working hard in 
his hay field a drink of buttermilk, "because he wanted it for 
his hogs." 

The secretary of the prison said that it " cost the con- 
tractors less than twenty cents each per day to keep the pris- 
oners," and sometimes, when drunk, would say that he kept 
two sets of books, one set being private and that "this was cor- 
rect." It was said also, that "there was never a credit mark 
for any prisoners, but plenty of black ones." 

A prisoner's mother finding that the Governor spurned 
the judgment and expressed will of the people most interested, 
as to releasing her son, came and placed $100 in his hand, and 
told him to "jump away," and he did. 

A prisoner loaned to one of the contractors over $1,000 in 
gold " for a few days only," and could never recover it. The 
court gave a judgment for the amount, but the law would work 
no further against the secret brother. Many years afterwards, 
when the victim was finally released, it was on condition that 
he leave and stay away from the country, so as not to be 
" troublesome " to the thieves who had looted him. And it 
was whispered that he had to receipt in full for the $2,100 
which was then due him. He, however, returned to his home, 
and when the Governor had him arrested to be re-imprisoned, 
Judge Wingard turned him loose. He complained of attempts 
being made to poison him, and he often regretted his not ac- 
cepting an offer to buy his liberty years before for a large sum 
of coin in bank; but, being ignorant of the men he had to deal 
with, he expected to get out on the merits of his cause. 

From Josephus. - " Nor was there any sort of wickedness 
that could be named, but Albinus had a hand in it, he did not 
only steal and plunder every one's substance, nor did he only 
burden the whole nation with taxes, but he permitted the re- 
lations of such as were in prison for robbery to redeem them 




C277) 



278 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 



with money, and nobody remained in the prisons but lie who 
gave him nothing. The principal men among them purchasing 
leave of Albinus to go on with their evil practice, while that 
part of the people who delighted in disturbances joined them- 
selves to such as had fellowship with Albinus, and every one 
of those wicked wretches was encompassed with his own band 
of robbers, while himself, like an arch robber or a tyrant made 
a figure among his company, and abused his authority over 
those about him, in order to plunder those that lived quietly. 
The effect ol which was this, that those who lost their goods 
were forced to hold their peace, when they had reason to show 
great indignation at what they had suffered ; but those who had 
escaped, were forced to flatter him that deserved to be pun- 
ished, out of the fear they were in of suffering equally with the 
others. Upon the whole, nobody durst speak their minds, for 
tyranny was generally tolerated, and at this time were these 
seeds sown which brought Jerusalem to destruction. 

And though such was the character of Albinus, yet did 
Gessius Florus, who succeeded him [as Eoman Governor — 
A.D. 66] demonstrate him to have been a most excellent person 
upon the comparison, he omitted no sort of rapine or of vexa- 
ation. Where the case was really pitiable, he was most bar- 
barous, and in things of the greatest turpitude, he was most 
impudent. Nor could anyone outdo him in disguising the 
truth, nor could, anyone contrive more subtle ways of deceit 
than he did. He, indeed, thought it but a petty offense to get 
money out of single persons, and did almost publicly proclaim 
it all the country over, that they had liberty given them to 
turn robbers, on this condition that he might go shares with 
them in the spoils they got." 

There was a room, 20x20 feet, in the gang's bastile that was 
used for a shoe-making shop, tailor-shop, and hospital, except 
when there were women prisoners, when it was occupied by 
them ; the tailor and shoemaker going up to the unfinished 
garret, and the sick— well, nobody was supposed to be sick. 
An invalid lay on his back on a table in the big hall for seven 
or eight months with a hip disease, and the sick, when able, 
frequently bought their own medicine. This hall was as much 



How TO Run a Reform Prison. 279 

" the hospital " as was the tailor and shoe shop — and there was 
no other. 

However, one woman prisoner occupied a shanty in the 
yard for two and a half years. This was an Indian woman, 
who, being jealous of her husband, a white man, at a dance 
waylaid and shot him dead while he was returning home ; and 
he not being a secret brotherhood man, it was not considered 
much of a crime to thus kill him. She was also allowed to 
bring her three children with her, the gang getting sixty 
cents each per day for them, besides the seventy cents for 
their mother. 

One of the contractors was married to an Indian woman — 
does any one suppose that had she killed him in a like manner 
she would have got off so light ? 

An Indian boy was sick with a scrofula disease, and begged 
and cried to be let " go home to his mother," who, he was 
" sure, tvould cure him" and other Indians declared that " just 
such cases were cured by them." But he begged and cried in 
vain ; he being held to die by inches without suitable food or 
care and crying to " go home ! " His chum, who had come 
with him, wanted to wheel him to the station and see him 
home ; their time by this time having nearly expired— hui the 
last drop of blood must be wrung out. 

They were convicted of stealing a little grub from a wood- 
man's cabin— while white men who loot whole ranches are run 
for office. This is but a sample case where hapless prisoners 
were thus held on to, to miserably die by inches ; when an un- 
tamed cannibal would have let them go home and be cured. 
The treatment of this boy drove his Indian chum to despera- 
tion ; though having but a few days to stay, he jumped the 
place, procured a gun, and declared for vengeance— though 
having been peaceably disposed always before. 

' ' Dreadful il was to see Ike ghastly stare. 
The st(my look of horror and despair. 
Which some of these expiring victims cast. 
Upon their souVs tormentor to the last. 

Upon that mocking fiend, whose veil now raised, 

Showed them, as in death's agony they gazed. — Moare'^ 

A white woman, with a large family of small children, told 



280 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

her boy to defend their home which they had dug out of the 
woods, against a secret ring jumper who was then tearing 
down their fence, and the boy did so effectually as to him ; there- 
fore the mother was sent to Seatco for five years, and with 
never a child to comfort her. Her aggravated agony and heart- 
rending moanings for her little children, left in sore distress, 
as she walked the floor night and day in a frenzy of grief and 
despair, would make any honest man curse the court that 
desolates, loots and murders honest, hard earned homes, in- 
stead of at least lending a hand — without eating up the place — 
for their protection. 

One morning, this virtuous, home-loving mother of a large 
family of helpless children, was found hanging to a post in her 
cell, dead. Did she do it ? or was she horribly murdered ? 

An executive or other prison official, who spurns every 
crumb of justice or of charity, and even decent usage, to one of 
these luckless looted victims — whose shrieks of torture is to 
them the essence of delight — should be made to suffer in kind. 

I was present when the Governor' s attention was called to 
this event and the friendly post — he manifested no more feel- 
ing than had the victim been a rat. 

Another woman, to repel an indecent assault, threw a 
lamp at her assailant, and he died. This was also made a 
crime and she was sent to the bastile with promises of a speedy 
release — as is so common ivith the deceivers. She soon found 
these promises to be a delusion and lie, and after an illness 
died. It was the prison talk that for months she did not go to 
bed at night on account of fear ; and that during her illness 
one of the officials gave her frequent doses of medicine. She 
had no female attendant, indeed, none had. 

There were several different doctors at different times, but 
they hardly ever exercised any authority. One, however, told 
a prisoner with much feeling, that he was getting the heart 
disease from. his troubles and sufferings, and to "just look out 
and care for himself, for nobody else would, and called him back 
when he had been called out to work, telling him not to work, ex- 
cept as he felt able if he valued his life ! " This doctor, however, 
soon got bounced, but the sick prisoner was held on to with a 
vicious, craving desire to wring out and lap his heart's blood. 



How TO Run a Reform Prison. 281 

After a long time a few newspapers were got to condemn 
the cruelties at Seatco (Seatco is Indian for "the devil's 
home "). One paper (Seaffle Chronlch') demanded a change, or 
it would expose the whole brutal swindle. This had a good 
effect, so that even the Governor recommended that the legisla- 
ture buy movable irons and do away with the others, and it 
authorized him to do so /orthiu it h. Yet it was about a ^/taz- 
before he got them, and tivo and a half years before the others 
were done away with, which displayed how earnest he was to 
lessen the misery of better men. 

Those permanent irons broke down many a good man, and 
caused more to jump away than they kept from it. Some, 
while striking for their liberty, were shot. One was shot 
through the heart, it was said, after he had stopped, turned 
round, and thrown up his hands ; and another was shot after 
he had surrendered. Even guards would frequently say that 
they " did not blame men from jumping away from such a 
hell." 

When the legislature convened, it would send out a com- 
mittee to investigate matters; but, as they were brother masons, 
they did little or nothing against the gang. The prisoners 
represented and complained that the warden should be an in- 
dependent and responsible moral man; appointed and paid by the 
Territory, to stand between the rights of the prisoners and the 
Territory, and the cruel greed of contractors, instead of being 
as he then was, one of their servile hands. This they agreed 
to, and the legislature appropriated $600 a year to pay such a 
warden, but they left it to the Governor to appoint the man, 
which his excellency (?) did, in the perso7i of the very same servile 
hand the contractors then had employed^ thus simply making them a 
present of $600 a year of the people's money, and doing the 
prisoners no good. 

At one session of the legislature, the members came out in 
a body, and in freely mingling and conversing with the prison- 
ers in the hall, were quite fully informed as to the abuses they 
suffered. One prisoner addressed them at length, showing up 
the cruelties and corruptions in an able and interesting man- 
ner, and with plenty of proof at hand to establish, beyond dis- 
pute, every charge. The chief contractor was called in to face 



282 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 



aud refute, if lie could, charges, that if true, should have hung 
the whole gang. And he did not even deny a single accusation. It 
was also shown that the Governor's message was false as to 
the prison. For example : That he had credited the con- 
tractors with keeping six more prisoners than were there, and 
that the people were deceived and robbed in various other 
ways also, as will hereafter appear. 

If there was a single member of that body who was not 
convinced that this was a most brutal swindle of a prison, he 
did not manifest it there, or encoiirage furllier proof, while they 
mostly freely condemned it as such a hell. And some of them 
earnestly reqiiested Mr. Strong's speech to use openly in the 
legislature and to have it published also, and he gave it to 
them accordingly. 

One of the contractors, declining to face the flaming 
charges against him, and who, like the rest, was opposed to 
giving a victim a hearing anyway, slipped up into the garret, 
and with his ear to the floor, listened insidiously to the prison- 
er's great speech, which he had written on brown paper — the 
only kind he could procure. 

I asked a couple of members, who sat by me during its de- 
livery, as I did others also, whether they "believed those 
charges to be true ? " And they replied that they " believed 
everv one of them, for — they said— they were evidently true 
by the proof they heard and saw for themselves, and that men 
in such a situation should be considered more trustworthy tuhen 
testifying against officials over them than others not in duress," and 
that " besides, if any charges were not true, this loas the time and 
place to refute it, but which ivas not attempted." 

They also pledged themselves earnestly (as we thought) to 
do all they could to rectify the abuses, and end the fraudulent 
contract. 

" Then," I said, " you do not believe the Governor ? " " No," 
one said, " and I never did." They also said that Mr. Strong 
should be protected from punishment *' for so bravely exposing 
the cruelties and corruptions and pleading for right and 
justice." Some appeared to be horrified aud infuriated at these 
teachers of crime, these human serpents, who, when challenged 
to meet the charges against them of heinous crime, had crawled 




His Penalty for Making a Speech. 

Exposing the tortures of the secret BastUe. 



284 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

out of sight, to strike their victims in the dark with secret 
poicer and ohligation. And many of the members made a second 
visit, and left apparently more confirmed and determined to break 
up the brutal swindle. 

Yet when the legislature had adjourned, the contractors 
had got an extension of tivo years, and Mr, Strong's speech — 
Avhich contained more vital information to the people than all 
the messages and other writings of all the Governors of the 
Territory, before, at the time, or since — had been squelched. Nor 
had he been protected from abuse for his earnest honesty, and 
was therefore punished by pulling out nine of his teeth, and 
in various other ways also— this was hitting virtue with a club. 

And when the people had petitioned very strongl}-, and 
without any open opposition, for his restoration, it was denied 
by the Governor on the ground, that "he had thus caused the 
contractors much trouble." "Then," replied his very aged 
mother who had come from the States, to work for his libert}^ 
" he has been driven to it by abuse ! for I have successfully 
raised a large family of boys and girls, and this one has will- 
ingly given me less trouble than any of the rest." 

Such is the practical workings of Masonry and its like, 
which sets good men to studying the philosophy of anarchy 
and of socialism, if the gang cannot be killed ; there being no 
security for liberty, for property, or for life, as it is. 

" "While every tear liis [looted] children shed 

Fell on his soul like drops of flame : 

And as a lover hails the dawn 

Of a first smile, so welcomed he 

The sparkle of the first sword drawn 

For vengeance and for liberty." — Moore. 

This legislature, and the succeeding one, however, provided 
for the building of a territorial prison at Walla Walla ; but in- 
stead of utilizing the labor of the prisoners in its construction, 
which was entirely practicable, they were left with the con- 
tractors, at 70 cents a day, till it was slowly built. And even 
then the Governor and contractors would hardly permit their 
removal, notwithstanding that it had been provided for by the 
legislature, and would be a large daily saving to the territory 
and a measure of justice to the prisoners. 



How TO EiTN A Reform Puison. 285 

Indeed, the gang thus held on to them for the money there 
was in it, in direct violation of the law, till the Governor was 
compelled by the people of Walla Walla and the notoriety of the 
swindle, to let them go. 

The legislature had appropriated $50,000 for the main- 
tainance of the prisoners, wherever they might be, and $1,000 
for their removal to the new prison " whenever it was suitable 
for occupancy." Yet, the gang could get blackleg shysters to 
declare, that " while it was legal to pay 70 cents each and their 
labor per day to such a gang, it was illegal to pay out 25 cents 
each per day direct for their maintainauce, and retain the labor 
besides." They practically held, that "no money should he paid 
Old of the treasury unless 65 per cent, should be clear to the 
GANG." The Walla Walla brethren were willing to take a less 
per cent., which did not please the Governor; but by their ad- 
vancing the means necessary to maintain the prisoners — thus 
leaving the Governor without his flimsy pretext -he finally and 
reluctantly complied with the law to remove them. 

An eminent Mason came to see a man who had been robbed 
and shanghaied here, telling him that he would get him releas- 
ed for what money he had left ; he accepted the proposition 
but on the positive condition, that the former was not to get any 
money until his release was secured. This was the distinct 
agreement in the presence of the superintendent. The gentle- 
man wrote an order, supposed and said to be in accordance 
with the agreement, and in the excitement, flurry, stress and 
hurry — made for tlie p)urpose — the victim was got to sign the 
paper, without knowing anything to the contrary. The "Hon. 
leading-light-in-the-profession-and-head-of-the-bar" fortliwitli 
struck out and got the money, kept it, and dropped his victim, 
who went crazy immediately. This victim was undoubtedly in- 
nocent of any crime, and this case is given as a mere specimen of 
others. 

"What mighty mischief glads him now, 
Who never smiles but to destroy. " 

Months afterwards the eminent gentleman of the " bar " 
died, and though he was a notorious thief for twenty years, j-et 
the ring papers were filled with glowing eulogies of the depart- 
ed brother, but had never a word to say for his hundreds of 



286 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 



suffering victims But of the brutal, grasping, cowardly thief 
they said, that " he was bright, shrewd and ambitious, stood at 
the head of the bar, was repeatedly elected to the legislature, 
nominated for delegate to Congress, he invested [what he stole] 
in real estate, and, in the constant rise, made money fast. He 
built two of the most elegant residences on the Sound .... the 
]ieople of Pierce county have lost their most able advocate, 
most loyal citizen and best friend." 

Now, is this " charity," or is it an outrage on justice, to 
make cowardly pillage respectable and aggravate the wounds of 
his bleeding, dying victims ? 

It was the prison talk that it took money to get a pardon. 
And as men with the worst cases and characters, and with 
slight, if any, petitions, were pardoned, while others whose in- 
nocence, good character and conduct were known to all who 
cared to know, and with very strong petitions withal, were left 
to languish ; this talk therefore was but reasonable. And some 
whispered how much their release would cost. For example — 
that his "was bargained for $1000." (And he went, too, though 
he had plead guilty to highway robbery, was an old offender, 
had run away and been extradited from British Columbia and 
made a second attempt, and had served but a fifth of his sen- 
tence.) 

Another said that his pardon would cost his folks about 
$700, (and he went also, having served but a small portion of 
his time.) 

The ring papers said, that a "numerously signed petition 
did the business." "When the truth was, the Governor would 
scarcely look at a "numerously signed petition." 

For example. — A "numerously signed petition" was sent in 
to the Governor for the release of a prisoner who was guilty of 
no crime ; he said that " as others had become impatient and 
begged and urged the Governor to act on their petitions with- 
out avail, he would let him take his own time and way without 
pressing him, and see if he would not be more successful." So 
he and his family waited and suffered, as patiently as they 
could, for six long, miserable, anxious mouths ; and then, the 
Governor being at the bastile, he mentioned the matter to him, 
who finally remembered that there was a petition in his office 



How TO KuN A Reform Prison. 287 

in this prisoner's behalf, "but," said his excellency, "I have not 
looked at it yet." 

But he declared that he would " look at it " as soon as he 
returned. Whether he ever did or not " look at it " made no 
difference, for the victim served out his five years. 

I have lately talked with an old neighbor of this victim 
and he declares that "everybody " knows, and did at the time, 
that it was a put-up job against him by an enemy for unjust re- 
venge and plunder ; and he had relied on one of the blackleg 
shysters that sold and betrayed me. 

In such cases the judge and jury may know little or nothing 
about a man's real case, even if they are not fixed against him. 
It is only necessary to fix his lawyer, which is a very common 
thing to do. Surely, such devilish treason should be killed oid on 
sight I In this case the victim believed that he kneiv, that he 
was thus sold for $150 ; and there are brethren in the gang, who 
have cried up this traitorous thief for a judge in " our good 
Judiciar}^" 

One of my jurymen said that he learned more of my real 
case a day or two after the so-called trial, than he did at that 
corrupt performance, and that "now all he blamed me for was 
that I did not kill the devil sooner than I did ;" and which is 
the general sentiment of my neighbors. Another juryman said, 
that "a majority of the jury were fixed against me anyway." 

Therefore, in such cases as these, a Governor who rejects 
and spits upon the earnest prayers of good citizens who are 
uncorrupted and who do know the real case, and who further — 
with a grin— spits in the face of the victim, " we have a good 
Judiciary," is a damned, perjured, cowardly thief, a cringing 
tool of the gang, and a traitor to his country. 

The intent of the pardoning power, the world over, is to 
correct any miscarriage or perversion or prostitution of the 
courts and of justice, and protect the defenceless. It is not 
intended to be a mere personal privilege to trade on in the 
dark; but is a sworn public trust, above and independent of 
the courts and their machinery and blackleg "bar." And a Gov- 
ernor is just as much sivorn to attend to and exercise this oath- 
bound trust, and to do so honestly, as that of any other 
function of his office. Indeed, it is the most vital and importarf 



288 A Pilgrimage in Hell, 

charge of the office. And what a villain one must be to squelch 
and prostitute it ! 

When a victim is gagged and railroaded through a court 
in charge of black leg shysters, who have betrayed and sold 

him, WHERE ! OH, WHERE ! IS HIS RECOURSE ? 

A sane man was shanghaied to the insane asylum, to rob 
him of his property {quite a common thing). A friend set to 
work and got him out, and was exposing the job when he 
was made a victim of a put-up job and shanghaied to the 
Seatco Bastile. He was informed that he would be released if 
he would agree to cease from " making such trouble." 

Another sane man was charged about $2,000 by court 
lawyers for defending him against one of these jobs. He had 
valuable property that the gang wanted, and he declared that 
a man — who was afterwards made Governor — and " other 
masons " were in a conspiracy to rob him of it. His insanity 
consisted only in " getting on to the gcaig," and thus defeating 
the job. So they made several attempts to put him out of the 
way. But the people of Seattle would wake up and get mad 
when these job trials were being waged against him ; conse- 
quently the " good judiciary " would weaken and let him off, 
except that he must pay the shysters $2,000 per job, and the 
people of the county also paid about the same amount in 
court expenses to the brethren. 

During one of these jobs a brother (who was a minister in 
the States) had to come out and help protect this victim 
against the "good judiciary." He was willing to defend him- 
self and his property against the masons, and armed himself 
accordingly. But secret thieves being cowards, forced him 
into the good-to-them-judiciary, where they could rob him at 
the expense of the 'people and ivithout danger to themselves. 

A mason plead guilty to grand larceny, forgery and rob- 
bery, and was indicted on several other charges also ; the 
extent of which in the aggregate amounted to Ji/ty -three years 
in the penitentiary, and was sentenced to Seatco for ttvo years. 
And, moreover, he was secretly pardoned before he arrived at 
the prison. The brotherly press stated that he " was serving 
out his time" there, and while the press was lying /or the 



How TO KuN A Keform Prison. 289 

guUiy brother, it was also lying against good citizens who were 
left to languish unheard and undefended. 

Two other old offenders were convicted of an attempt to 
wreck a passenger train. They got two and two and a half 
years, and were soon pardoned out. One of them was con- 
victed twice afterward, and was soon pardoned each time ; his 
father was a mason. 

Another who had been arrested nineteen (19) times for 
grand larceny, and had stolen stock, by his word, " ever since 
he was big enough to ride a horse," got two years and was 
pardoned ; was convicted again and again pardoned — his father 
was a mason. 

Another old offender plead guilty to horse-stealing, got 
one year and was pardoned before coming to the prison — his 
father was a mason. 

A ring official plead guilty to embezzlement, and was 
pardoned before he saw the prison — he being a mason. 

Indeed, the masons and odd-fellows have plundered the 
treasuries of many of the counties of the territory with impunity 
— the judiciary being very good to them. 

Meanwhile, others of them were murdering people in cold 
blood, and committing all manner of other crimes, but the 
judiciary and ring press being " good " to them they went un- 
punished. 

As example in point — in brief from the press. 

"MuKDER Most Foul." 

[^BlanJc\ slays his bretver Adam G . Two pistol sJiots. The murderer 

in custody. 

" Going into the brewery yard we found Adam G lying on his 

back ; the blood was streaming from a pistol wound between the shoulders ; 
and the right eye had been pierced with another bullet. The assistant 
brewer said, "I heard two pistol shots, and ran up and found [Blank] had 
shot his head brewer." 

"Adam G threatened to attack and sue [Blank] if he would not 

pay him the .S50 due him ; Adam G quit a week ago. " 

The Sheriff proceeded to [Blanks] residence accompanied by the 
editor. As they reached the portico [Blank] was sitting in a chair, and 
extended his hand to the editor and greeted him with the usual salutation, 
" Hello ! how is de round-up." 

Soon after the sheriff took [Blank] to the hotel The dying man was 
19 



290 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

tinconscious from the first and died soon after. His appearance as he lay 
there Avith wet socks and drawers which he had just washed, and still 
clutched in his hand, showed plainly that he was not in a hostile attitude 
when slain [and he was unarmed]. 

We suppose that the hope of [Blank] is the plea of craziness, but his 
only craziness was long protracted drinking. ' ' He has recently been veiy 
abusive to his family, and drove his son away, threatening to kill him if 
he returned," "The probate Judge refused the murderer bail, and he 
was committed to the care of the sheriff." But he is virtually at large 
Avithout bail. The peojile are talking very wicked about this thing. They 
fail to see Avhy a man who sells a drink of liquor to an Indian should be 
incarcerated in a cell, and one who slays his fellow-man should be allowed 
his liberty. 

Considering the popular feeling in this case, it would be best, even as 
a matter of poUcy, and regardless of duty of officei's to enforce the law, 
or else worse may come. Later. " Judge [Blank] has granted Blank bail 
on the showing of his attorneys that he is sick, with the sheriff to ai^i^rove 
of his bonds." 

A CAKD. To the Public. — Recently, while on a visit to town, I got into 
an argument on the merits and demerits of the [Blank] case, and freely 
asserted that if Blank received an honest trial he would probably pay the 
penalty of Hfe. A short time afterwards I received a card addressed : 
Charles Wendler, North Yakima, W. T., I. O. O. F., A. F. and A. M. 

With the following in hand- writing evidently disguised : 

" V/e have you spotted, keep quiet, danger ahead, 0008 A. F. and A. M." 
"With regard to this I will simply say that I have expressed my 
honest opinion hke a free man, and that I cannot be bull-dozed by any 
anonymous and threatening cards, and if the writer becomes known to me 
I will prosecute him to the extent of the law. Respectfully, 

Chakles Wendler." 

It is evident that IVIr. Wendler did not know that the 
"good judiciary " is made up from these gangs, or he would not 
talk about " prosecuting them " therein, where he would stand 
no more show for justice, than does a Gentile in Utah, in a 
Mormon court. 

INIr. Blank's case was put off for about a year by the 
"good judiciary," while the people were being blinded and 
bull-dozed into submission, and after a change or two of venue 
the brethren indicted him with a sham or " imperfectly 
drawn " indictment for manslaughter ; then the " good judici- 
ai-y " went through the farce of a trial (?) on this flawed indict- 
ment, and the verdict was guilty. So now the "imperfect" 



How TO Run a Reform Prison. 291 

indictment having been good enough for a so-called trial, and 
its necessary expense to the people and profit to the gang, it' 
was discovered (?) to be " imperfectly drawn," and the '* good 
judiciary "quashed it and the verdict accordingly, and reduced, 
the brother's bail. I quote from a paper : " The case will again be 
presented to the grand jury at the October term of court, and 
unless another change of venue is granted the trial will take 
place at ." 

The "good judiciary " played another farce or two at the 
expense of the people and profit to itself. ( >f course, Mr. Blank 
was " acquitted " — this having been fixed in the dark at the very 
beginning. Indeed, it was done vi advance when brethren were 
made officials of the court. 

In a similar case it was stated by the press that " the case 
from the begiuuiug will cost the people $35,000. It should not 
have cost $1,000." 

Oh ! What a good (?) judiciary ! 

Anotheb sample case. — "Mr. Klebiu-n was walking along, with or 
after Mr. [Blank] on tlie street, Kleburn talking rapidly and excitedly, 
tbough maldng no demonstration to fight ; presently the two parties 
stopped in front of the . . . office — Klebum with his back to the 
building and Blank facing him — they being about two feet <ipart. They 
conversed in this i^osition probably tlaree minutes, when Kleburn was 
seen to tap Blank on the front of the shoulder — as if emjjhasizing 
strongly. Blank jjushed Kleburn back and made some remark, but Kle- 
burn advanced to his old position, and took hold of the lapel of Blank's 
coat with one hand. With astonishing rapidity Blank drew a revolver, 
and placing the muzzle directly against Kleburn's left breast, pulled the 
trigger. The report was so weak that those standing around felt con- 
vinced that it was a blank cartridge. This can be accounted for by the 
barrel of the pistol being pressed against Kleburn's person. Instantly as 
the shot was fired, Blank put the i^istol in his jjocket, and started around 
the comer. Klebum stood stock still, just turning to watch his assailant 
as he i:)assed around the comer ; and it was then that the reporter dis- 
covered the man was wounded, and his vest was burning. Running do'wn 
from his position he took hold of Kleburn's arm with one hand, and strik- 
ing the blaze on his vest with the other exlitignished the fire. At that time 
Kleburn was as pale as a sheet, and said, "Yes; [Blank] shot me." I 
will go with you to a doctor ; when in front of the book bindery, the 
wounded man commenced to stagger, and despite all his assistant could do 
dropped heavily at the comer of the alley about 100 feet from where he 
■was shot, saying, ' I'm dying.' " 



292 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 



Other witnesses swore that Kleburn ' ' was emphatic, nothing like a 
blow though, more aggressive in manner than in action ; there was no 
motion on his part to draw a weapon." And he vkis unarmed while Blank 
had armed himself to shoot him. At preliminary (and only) examination a 
couple of brethren plead and argued his case as much and as long as they 
wanted to, and so did Blank himself; but "the i^rosecuting attorney [a 
secret brother also] stated that he would not argue the case ; the court (?) 
had heard the testimony and could judge whether or not it was a case. " 
And the "good judiciary announced as its decision that '^ no offence had 
been committed." 

But it was really good enough not to play any more silly 
farces at the expense of the people as to this case. And the 
brotherly press all joined in songs of praises to Blank — de- 
claring it to have been " A clear case of self-defence.'^ When, had 
Kleburn shot Blank in a like manner, they would have howled 
Mm down as a " Cold-blooded, coioardly murderer" and the 
" good judiciary" would have treated him accordingly. This 
Tione hut a tliiefioill deny. 

I could fill a book with similar cases, of which I have cut- 
tings, but as they are transpiring every day, in one place or an- 
other, every voter should read and watch them critically, each 
for himself, and by his vote say whether or not a member of 
any secret oath-hound order should hold any o^ce of profit or trust 
wherein good citizens are concerned. 

The proceedings in such cases were watched critically by the 
prisoners, and many could tell at the heginning just hoiutlicy would 
end, by considering the relationship and obligations of the gang as to 
the same, and their intense feelings at the unequal justice {which 
is not justice) that is practiced, I have no words to describe ; nor 
can anyone fully imagine who has never unjustly miserably 
suffered. 

Men differ as to which works the most corruption, money 
or masonry. The fact is, it is dangerous to pay out or receive 
money corruptly, unless it is done through the dark, lurking 
secrecy of masonry, etc. If a blackleg official should receive 
money corruptly direct from an outsider he might expose it ; 
while a brother in the gang would not dare to do so. This is 
believed to be the reason that a prisoner's common and honest 
friends, and the people who knew the man and the case to be 



I 



How TO Run a Reform Prison. 293 

good, had no influence with the Governor, while a single heavily- 
paid brother in the gang had all the in/litence he loanted. 

Though members of an oath-bound gang have influence 
enough to shanghai and hold innocent men in prison, as they 
did me, by perhaps dividing the plunder, and even without, yet 
if a few of them should attempt his release, they must evident- 
ly be loell provided loith cash to succeed. Some prisoners who 
had no enemies in the Territory, and whom the people wanted 
released, were yet required by the Governor to leave the 
country forthwith, as though afraid of some secret being di- 
vulged. 

And I — George W. France — had several offers to get me 
out for large sums of money. One member of the gang wanted 
my homestead (which was what I had left of my fortune) as the 
price of my liberty — as will hereafter more fully appear. A 
brazen, mid-night, blackleg Governor, might say, " Damn you, 
you cannot prove to the satisfaction of the " good judiciary " 
that /got or would get such money." I answer, " Damn you, 
it is immaterial to the victim who of the gang gets it, or don't 
get it, if he has to pay it all the same, or languish." And, sir, 
if you would hold a man in prison to be plundered and ravaged 
and looted of all that is valuable, near and dear to him, know- 
ing him to be innocent, or refuse to know it, you are a most 
damnable, cowardly thief anyway. And so you are, if only high 
priced agents have any influence with you, while one's common 
friends and neighbors, and the mass of the people are spurned 
as so many rats ! If you were honest, sir, you would choose to 
know and deal direct with the principal and his common 
friends, and the public ; and receive the truth ivhereever found, 
and spurn the secret lurking enemy, who dare not he hioivn ! If 
you were not a servile lackey of corruption and Masonry, sir, 
you would not spit in the face of a ravaged victim the brazen 
lie, that " we have a good judiciary," when 7jou know that he 
knows, that as between outsiders, justice is sold to the highest 
bidder for cash or mortgages — which is not justice — and that he 
has no more show against your secret midnight brethren, than 
he would have in the Mormon courts of Utah — your brethren 
also. 

Prisoners, being denied mail facilities and more direct 



294 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

means of attending to their business, were, therefore, often 
compelled to trust business matters to blacklegs who were at 
hand. In thus trusting a prison doctor — living at Chehalis — 
he robbed his victim of, to him a large sum of money, in such 
a cowardly, villainous manner ; yet there was no recourse 
against the thief. 

It is often said by blackleg officials that " to hear prison- 
ers talk, they are all innocent." This is false, for after their 
conviction they most always admit their guilt, if they are 
guilty ; especially to their companions. One reason is, it re- 
lieves the mind ; another, because most men would rather be 
considered a criminal than a fool ; and another, because they 
generally fare better while in prison, and stand a better show 
for release — officials knowing how to sympathize ivitli their 
hind. 

It was widely published in the press that one of the Gov- 
ernors skipped his native State in the night, to dodge the 
sheriff who had a warrant for his arrest for (as administrator) 
robbing an estate of his own people ; so he would naturally 
hate fire-arms, as knowing his just deserts like other burglars, 
and how to sympathize with nocturnal thieves. 

Another prison official was reported to have served a term 
in the Idaho penitentiary for robbing sluice-boxes. 

Another, admitted having been guilty of frequently selling 
whiskey to Indians, and declared that he " would steal before 
he would work." 

Another, and his court, had robbed a paralized man in a 
cold-blooded, cowardly way of about $2,000 in gold coin. Two 
had been publicly shown to be perjurers, and several of them 
are accessory to cowardly, torturing murder ! 

What show has an honest man for justice with such a 
gang ? Linked together in a secret oath-bound brotherhood ! 
With their chief preaching temperance to the blinded, ignorant 
multitude, and getting drunk on the sly ! And publicly por- 
traying in glowing terms and silver tones the beauties and 
loveliness of truth, which in his practice he spurns, detests and 
spits upon, and declai'es to be evil ! And all parading the Bible 
through the streets, to make careless people think they are 
honest ! ! 



How TO Run a Reform Prison. 295 

Well may they love the judiciary, that they, by midnight 
intrigue, control and own, and which is, therefore, 'so good to 
tliem, and hate their victims' only effectual means of defence, as 
they do equality before the law ! 

The legislature appropriated $25, per year, for newspapers 
of the ten-itory, which was highly appreciated ; but this, I be- 
lieve, was the only means spent for the benefit of the j^Tisoners. 
Those having any friends left, would generally be sent reading 
matter (also boxes of food, etc.), and many were newspapers 
subscribers and would also buy books. The W. C. T. U. would 
sometimes send in tracts, flowers, etc., which, however, was 
considered very cold comfort to those whose bodies were being 
cruelly starved and torn, and virtue made a bleeding slave to 
depravity, with none to stand up/or the right. 

This toying with the devil because he is in p)oiver, made men 
forget their prayers, discard their bibles, curse the cringing 
slaves and question God. 

There was only one outside door to the bastile, and it was 
in the upper story ; so in case of fire all were in danger of being 
burned alive — this one door being the only loay of escape. And 
by it was where all the lamps were filled, etc., so that the oil- 
soaked bench and floor and can of oil added to the danger. 
One night a fire in the guards' sitting room by this door and oil 
burned through the six inch floor into a prisoner's cell below, 
who gave the alarm. It was a whiskey fire; so some of the 
officials might have perished also. 

The prison directors and others would always admit and 
promise to the prisoners, that other means of escape from fire 
should be provided ; but, as the governor-doctor-and-the-law- 
brother crooked his little finger against it, this was never done. 
And the W. C. T. U. and others sent more tracts and floAvers. 

The clothing was of the cheapest and flimsiest sort, but 
some were allowed to wear their own, or partly so. Yet, in 
other cases, even under-clothing, sent by friends and mothers, 
were denied and said to be appropriated by officials, as was the 
case with other clothing also. The prison pants— for all the 
seasons — were sometimes worn by other men as overalls ; and 
they were usually patched and torn. And prisoners thus thin- 
ly clad and heavily ironed, could be seen by the W. C. T. U. 



296 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

and others working out in the coldest weather and snow, 
guarded by officials bundled up in overcoats and boots and 
glowing with whiskey. 

Nor had the worst of these prisoners ever been more sinful 
than the men with influence at court who stone them down. 

Did Jesus only fling a tra3t or flower at tortured and looted 
humanity ? Or did he not criticise the State, agitate and stir up 
the people, " blaspheme " the authorities, and DO something for the 
afflicted ! 

The bastile cells were 8 x 10 feet, with two and three single 
beds in each. The beds were a straw tick and a 50 lbs. flour 
sack filled with straw for a pillow, one sheet (too narrow to be 
much good), and two pair of light cheap blankets — which were 
never washed. However, if a prisoner was able, he could add 
to his bedding, which many did ; while others suffered in cold 
weather, sleeping in double irons. But, on the whole, there 
were but few complaints as to the sleeping accommodations. 

The prisoners were expected to shave themselves, or each 
other ; but some were excused from shaving. 

Whenever a prisoner or two ran away, the rest must have 
their hair cut close ; though some did so anyway. 

One of the most quiet and peaceable men in the prison — 
or the world — who had worked hard and honestly for a living 
all of his life and was not now guilty of any crime, had picked 
up the shoe-making trade here and done all the prison work in 
that line, besides much outside work, which had required two 
other men to do before. His health being poor, so to enable 
him to stand so much work, he was trusted to walk about out- 
side of the prison every day without any guarding ; and was 
being promised assistance by the prison officials to get pardon- 
ed, or — more properly speaking — released, as he was guilty of 
no crime. However, he found that he was being humbugged 
and lied to in a cruel, brutal, cowardly manner — as is usual in 
such cases — so he thought he would pay them back just a little, 
which he did one day by extending his walk into the woods and 
remaining away for 9 or 10 days, when he returned alone and 
resumed his job. The contractors were so pleased to re-possess 
such a profitable hand, that they accorded him his old out- 



How TO Run a Reform Prison. 297 

cloor privileges, etc. Yet, when he left, this is the kind of a 
send-off the gentlemen had given him : — 

From the Press. — "Escaped from Seatco. The authorities in this 
city have been notified of the escape from the territorial penitentiary at 
Seatco, last Saturday, of one of the most despe^-ate aHminals ever confined 
within its walls. The desperado's name [etc., etc.] The super- 
intendent of the Seatco prison offers a reward of ^75 for his capture and 
return. " 

So, if their testimonj^ was anj proof of anything, it could 
be thus proven by themselves, that neither guards or irons of 
any kind were necessary to hold even the worst and " most des- 
perate " of the prisoners from running away, and, accordingly, 
they could not have been a very bad lot. 

One of the innocent prisoners is in for life. He was sen- 
tenced to be hung, and the scaffold was built under his nose to 
hang him on. Had he been an American citizen, outside of 
the gang, he would have been executed, notwithstanding every- 
body who cared to know his case, knew him to be innocent. 
And so many did know it, that the people were talking bitterly 
about the proposed murder. Still the Governor and Judge 
persisted in having the victim thus to die ! As the " good 
Judiciary " was held to be infallible (as against outsiders), no 
matter how infamous it be in fact. 

The people were so horrified at the proposed murder, that 
it was thought safer to do the job up secretly, in the dark, as it 
were. Indeed, it is doubtful whether the people, in their 
might, would have allowed such a cold-blooded murder to be 
done in open day. So the Governor would do it privately and 
out of the i^eople's sight. 

Here is a clipping in point : 

"Governor [Blank] and Judge [Blank] have joined in a special re- 
quest to the Sheriff, to have the execution of Gionini conducted in the most 
private manner- possible. Strenuous efforts have been made to secure com- 
mutation to imi^risonment for life, without avail, as the Governor considers 
him to be guilty and sane, and so resjionsible to the law for his crime 
against mankind and his maker. The execution wiU take place on Tuesday, 
the 11th of March." 

Let the people put a stop to private executions ! It is Masonry 
and means murder ! 



298 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

This victim was a citizen of little Switzerland, and the 
Swiss consuls in Portland, Oreg., and San Francisco, and the 
Swiss Minister at Washington, interested themselves in his 
behalf, and secured a commutation of his sentence. 

A man had killed another for his money, and then got a 
couple of Italian fishermen to swear the job on Gionini, and by 
buying his lawyer, as it is supposed was done, this was easily 
accomplished. These court witnesses swore that they were at 
a certain place when the shooting was done, and " saw Gionini 
do it." But it afterwards transpired that it was an utter phy- 
sical impossibility for a person to see another at all, from one 
of these places to the other on account of obstructions that in- 
tervened. And such was the evidence (?) on which the man 
was, and is to-day, robbed of his life. 

His treatment nearly drove him crazy ; he was kept in 
suspense as to his fate for about a year, and this was such an 
agony to him that he told them to " go ahead and hang him 
rather than thus prolong his misery ; " when any one could 
have known his case in a week. He could neither understand 
nor speak English at the time of his " trial," and no interpreter 
was allowed him. He is a civil engineer by profession, and 
had held positions of trust under his Government. 

From the Press. — "Father Cesari has just returned from Olympia, 
•where be has been to see the Governor in the interest of the condemned 
murderer Gionini. Father Cesari says that he knows Gionini is innocent 
of the crime for which he is convicted. " 

The Mayor of the town where he was " convicted," de- 
clared : 

"I most solemnly beHeve that the man is innocent." The Sheriff 
wrote : "On Sunday morning I went to see him to see how he was con- 
ducting himself, beUeving that he had but a few more hours to live. I 
said to him that I had ordered lumber, and next day would have an en- 
closure put up so that the pubHc would not see him die. He said he did 
not care how many peojile were there, that he was going to die an inno- 
cent man. He then explained, and I am fully persuaded that the real 
culprit is not now in irons." 

Say ? is it equal, just, or fair, to condemn any man ivho is un- 
heard and undefended ? A year after " trial " this accused 
happens to he allowed to hriefly " explain," and behold the Mayor 
and Sheriff declare him to be innocent ! 



How TO EuN A Kefokm Pkison. 299 

The Mayor continues. — "I firmly believe that another did the deed." 

"I refer you [the Governor] to ex-chief Justice — and Jiidge — who huve 
always doubted Im guilt. Both were present at the trial, and followed the 
entire case, and declared that the man should not be executed, that Gionini 
is not the murderei'." ..." Gionini had no defense." 

Now, if Gionini had been released when it was found he 
was innocent, he might have brought to justice, or at least ex- 
posure, the real criminals in the case — but the Governor was 
bitterly opposed to thus being " troublesome " to the gang, 
and would therefore hold me to evidently screen them from 
justice, and this may be one of the reasons that Gionini is 
being held. The real criminals may belong to tJie gang. 

A company, composed partly of the prison contractors, 
built a large sash and door factory at the prison. The prison- 
ers were pleased at this — thinking they would then have an 
opportunity to do over-work, and thus make something for 
themselves, as is usual in such cases. 

When it started up they were given tasks about equal to 
what would be expected of journeymen, and were to be paid by 
the piece for the over-work they might do. A lot of prisoners 
were thus set to work, and it was remarked by outsiders, and 
even officials, that they " never before saw a lot of inexperi- 
enced men take hold of such work and machines with such 
good ivill, ability and effect. 

The works were thus manned with the exception of a fore- 
man and a machinist. The company gave the contractors fifty 
cents a day for each hand (the contractors getting seventy 
cents besides from the Territory). But the prisoners were to 
be humbugged and abused like the case of the cooper given 
heretofore. They did their tasks and earned as much as 
seventy -five cents a day besides. Therefore they were screwed 
down and finally not allowed to exceed fifteen cents a day for 
any amount of work, and this must be taken in grub, etc., out 
of a little store that was higher-priced than others where they 
wanted to buy. This ten to fifteen cents, however, added to 
the regular prison fare, made the eating good enough for those 
working in the factory. But they thought they ought to get 
more than just suitable grub, inasmuch as the contractors were 
getting seventy cents per day from the Territory, and they 



300 A Pilgrimage in Hell, 



were earning $2 or $3 besides. And, moreover, they were often 
forced out to work when ill, and some of the work was danger- 
ous, so that several got mutilated, three loosing three and four 
of their fingers, and never being in the least recompensed 
therefor in time or otherwise, and were cruelly and poorly 
treated and cared for, so that they suffered terribly. For ex- 
ample : The doctor (?) in trimming what was left of a mutilated 
hand, sawed off the finger bones with a wood saw ! 

One or two foremen did all they could to have the men 
treated right, but failing, quit the job— cursing the outfit as 
earnestly as did the victims. A guard thus had a row with the 
prison superintendent, and so earnest was he that he used his 
pistol, firing several shots, but as he did not kill him, it did 
but little good. 

For various reasons there is no class of people as easily con- 
trolled to do right as prisoners. Therefore, whenever trouble 
occurs with them it is safe to those who love the truth, to con- 
sider their keepers as in the fault till the prisoners are given a fair 
liearing in the matter. And when a keeper is killed by a pris- 
oner, it is safe to those who love the truth, to consider that he 
only got a small portion of the justice due such a cowardly 
tyrant. 

These factory hands went to work as before shown with a 
good will to do good work, and as much of it as they could ; 
and they required no more over-seeing or watching than the 
same number of free journeymen ; yet the ofl&cials were not 
willing to treat them accordingly, because this would not 
satisfy their infernal passions of cruelty, torture, and greed ; 
which, of course, kindled a desire on the other hand to resent 
and get even; I will give a few examples of how they would do 
this : A man working an intricate machine said to a chum 
near by, " I have been sick for two or three days, and ought 
to lay off and take some medicine, but it is no use to ask the 
devil of a warden, only to be insulted." Whereupon the chum 
takes the butt of a spike, drives it into a piece of the others 
material, and says : " Damn them, run that stick through your 
machine and break it up, so you can lay off while they are get- 
ting it fixed." And when the foreman and chum come running 
up to see what the racket was, the sick-but-happy-man was 



How TO KuN A Keform Prison. 301 

cursing — with liis mouth — "some one unknown to him who 
must have a grudge against him," and " spiked the stick to get 
him into trouble." And then, as he is laying off with me in 
the hall, he mutters — from way down deep in his heart— 
" G — d d — m tJiem ! they would work me too into the grave, loould 
they ? " 

And he was perfectly willing for the works to be burne(. 
into smoke and a train was laid to send it sailing to the sk}'. 
When the prisoners were moved from Seatco, this man was 
pardoned, and knowing him to be a good hand if treated right, 
he was induced to remain in the factory (which was then 
being run with free labor) as assistant foreman of the works. 

Pause and consider how, that it is often circumstances more 
than the man, that makes the baleful criminal, or the success- 
ful man. 

Machine bearings were oiled (?) with sand and burnt. 
Cans of oil, etc., etc., would have holes punched in them and 
thus emptied. Light tools of all sorts and material were 
thrown away and destroyed. A man, in marking out work, 
would make little mistakes (?) of a quarter or a half inch — 
enough to practically spoil the work— like prosecuting attorneys 
and court clerks who thus make " errors " in an indictment or 
bill of costs, to be used as a pretext for a new trial for one of 
the gang, who says to his opponent : " If you follow me through 
the courts, it will break you up ;" and it does. Who ever heard 
of such errors (?) in favor of a Christian against a Mason or Odd 
Fellow ? 

Men loading the finished work into cars would give glaze (^ 
doors and windows a farewell kick, and smash them. 

The cedar dust was disagreeable to all, and to some it was 
very injurious ; and the boys wanted all of the windows opened, 
but, for some pretext or another, this was refused. Con- 
sequently when the foreman was out of sight, some one would 
hurl a club and crash ! goes a window ; the foreman goes to- 
wards the racket and crash ! goes another behind him, which is 
repeated at intervals, until there was not a whole pane of glass 
in the building to throw at, and they remained open until 
winter. 



302 A PiLGKIMAGE IN HeLL. 



Sometimes tliey would strike, that is more or less of them, 
and take a siege of bread and water. 

One morning there was a row at the factory ; a man had 
been put ou bread and water for refusing to run a certain 
machine, unless his irons were removed, he having to use his 
feet, and it was dangerous. So a part of the boys were refusing 
to go to work, unless he was released. The warden was sent 
for and started to take down the names of those who had struck 
— telling them to separate from the others, for him to "put 
them below " (on bread and water). 

There was a new comer present, who was not taking any 
action, so the warden said, "are you into this." "I don't know 
what the trouble is about, but you can count me in with the 
boys that are striking, I guess they are right and I will stand 
in with them." And he did. 

Finally, after several attempts were made to burn the 
business down, and finding that they were bound to succeed, 
the company nearly dispensed with their services and they 
were soon to be moved away. 

Wherever the pardoning power is vested in the Governor, 
he can always prevent or atone for any abuse of prisoners, and 
he has other powers also, to protect them, and also the people 
at large. But when he belongs to the gang, he need not be 
expected to exercise the office honestly. 

A prisoner should never he removed from the county ivherein he 
was living and known; then he would continue to be known — ■ 
favorably or unfavorably, as the case might be — but he and his 
conduct could then be truly known. And when he did not get 
justice or was abused, he could make this knoivn also to the people, 
WHO SHOULD HAVE THE POWER by loritten expression oj two-thirds 
of the voters in the county, to release a prisoner at any time; thus 
making effective the right of petition, which blackleg Governors 
spurn and over-ride, to enable secret midnight influences to prevail. 

Stirely, there should be a security, that the sober second 

THOUGHT or the PEOPLE SHALL BE LAW ! 

And that this shall not be over-ridden by any little secret 
gang, or a servile official. 



How TO Run a Reform Prison. 303 

Oh, Ye "Prison Reformers!" 

Look ye here and learn something ! ! from cue wlio hioivs 
whereof he speaks. 

When iu prison, the prisoners should be provided with 
shop room to work in, and allowed to buy and use such hand 
machinery and stock as they may desire, and to ivork for them- 
selves and attend to their oivn husiness. All such to pay the 
necessary expense of their keeping from the proceeds of their 
work. 

Tradesmen would take in as partners those who were in- 
experienced, but could furnish stock or outfit, and would em- 
ploy as journeymen those who were both inexperienced and 
poor. 

And by attending to their own business, they would get 
aihoui full prices for their ivork. 

To assist them in doing so, would encourage honest in- 
dustry and be a practical, honest. Christian charity; then they 
could buy their 'tracts and flowers,' and even suitable food, care 
for their families and have something to do with, and defend 
themselves against the gang on their release. 

They would establish brands and business reputations, 
that would be as reliable and should be as much sought after 
and patronized, as that of other business firms. And an inter- 
est in such a name and business would sell better to the new- 
comer or the old stayer, whose interest it would be to keep it 
good. 

It should be seen to that honest industry pays and that honesty 
is made respectable. 

The prisoner's rights should be precisely like those oi 
other men, except as to their confinement. 

Punishment should be awarded only by a justice of the 
peace, or higher court (luho should not belong to any secret, sivorn 
brotherhood), in open, public court ; and punishment not to ex- 
ceed close confinement with bread and water diet. 

Such a system, I know, is entirely practicable, and means re- 
form to such prisoners as need reforming half as much as do 
the courts, and also means a saving and security to the people. 

However, be it known, that to reform most men, who need 
reforming, it is first necessary that they be convinced that they 



304 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 



are worse than other men, who are considered good enough for 
governors, judges, senators and even presidents, that are loaded 
down with praises and power, and their false names and their 
persons held sacred against justice, as meted out to better men, 
when they are known to he venal, cruel and corrupt. 

They reason that if honor depends only on success, and 
dishonor only on failure to succeed, and the worst devils are the 
most successful, then why should they reform? 

Men, who are really bad, are often so after much study and 
consideration and experience in the world, and while some have 
gotten to be governors, judges and senators, others are quite as 
successful in villainy with a sandbag ; while others again, not so 
bold, cunning or lucky, get into prison. Still these have hopes 
that they will yet be as cunning, bold or lucky as the others, 
who are enjoying success, and frequently declare that " there 
are men working and saving up stakes for them to take when 
they get out." 

Now don't you see, that, to change their course in life, 
there must be an outspoken, active voting sentiment and power 
that shall make virtue, industry and honesty respectable and 
sv^ccessfvl — even in the courts 1 — and that will make vice, idle- 
ness and dishonesty disgraceful and a failure— even in the 
courts and at the polls ? 

That they must be assured, that, if they honestly labor, 
they can reap and enjoy the just fruits thereof themselves ! 
And that, what they may win by honest toil, they shall have a 
right to defend, and shall not be pillaged of it ; nor of their 
liberty ! 

But this cannot be done, while they know that so few 
wholly escape from the gangs of midnight conspirators, that 
have a den in nearly every county, to prostitute the courts and 
other functions of government, to over-ride the will of the 
people and pillage all they can throw down in the way ; and 
when they can put their fingers on so many victims who have 
earned and won so much by hard and persistent toil, only to 
be robbed and ravaged and looted, and held to languish in 
prison with no one " working and saving up stakes " for them 
when they get out. For these there is nothing but bitter deso- 
lation ! 



How TO KuN A Eeform Prison. 305 

There are some who would practice virtue and live the 
goldeu rule only because it is right to do so, whether thej 
" succeed or fail," live or languish. But they are unsought, 
undefended and unsung. 

Nothing desired by prisoners need be excluded from a 
prisoner except whiskey, opium and cards. Steel and iron and 
the opening of letters doe^ not keep prisoner's from breaking away. 
A phial of acid and an old case knife will let a prisoner out of 
any cell ; and any one having practical friends on the outside 
can, in one way or another, get these. Guards are all that 
holds prisoners who want to break away. And a single night- 
watchman prevented any such escape for over eight years at the 
Seatco Bastile, and he slept so much that his snoring was a 
nuisance. The prison was of wood, and all the tools of a 
blacksmith shop, a farm and. a factory loere accessible to the prison- 
ers, and any one could have a case knife that wanted it. 

Not more than fifty per cent, of prisoners need any guardir^ 
at all, and if dealt ivith honestly and generously, not more than 
twenty-five per cent, tvould break aivay if they could. Not that 
they are willing slaves and satisfied, but because they dread 
being fugitives, and want to get out right. 

October 1, 1883, Washington Territory legislature assem- 
bled. And this from the Governor's message : 

" The penitentiary at Seatco contains seventy-three per- 
sons. 

The cost of their maintenance for the past two years has 
been thirty-three thousand dollars." 

[The number of prisoners at that time was not seventy - 
three but sixty-seven. But it is reasonable to suppose that the 
brother contractors were drawing pay for the six extra that the 
brother Governor allowed them, which would amount to $1,533 
a year, and for nine years $13,797. If there was no censorship 
over a prisoner's correspondence, such errors (?) would never 
occur. There were men in prison for long terms for stealing 
only a few dollars.] 

His Excellency continues. — " The management is judicious 
and firm, very properly tempered with kindness." [Kiiubiess /] 

" The prisoners have general good health, and but few 
20 



306 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

deaths liave occurred." [He does not tell how some of them 
died, or the number.] 

" "When seriously sick they are placed in the hospital, have 
good accommodations, nursing, and excellent medical atten- 
tion." [I have heretofore described the hospital (?), and given 
examples of the " nursing " and " excellent medical attention " 
that the sick in reality did get.] 

" They are provided with abundant food in suitable variety, 
ample clothing and ordinary sleeping cells." 

[He ought to be fed on such grub the rest of his life, and 
wear light cotton clothing all the year round, which he says is 
" ample." ] 

" They [the prisoners] are generally well disposed in con- 
duct." [Then why did he not give them " generally " the 
rebatement of time provided by law on account of the same ?] 

" And not a few of them give evidence of a desire to be- 
come good citizens." [How could they help it with such " vir- 
tuous " examples before them ?] 

"Moveable shackles have been introduced and used in 
many cases to the comfort, benefit and satisfaction of the con- 
victs, who remove them at meal time, at night, and on Sun- 
days." [That is many who had not been wearing any irons 
before were now made " comfortable," satisfied," and " bene- 
fitted," by their use.] 

" In the out of door system of labor [which he favored] it 
is considered unsafe to dispense with the riveted shackles 
in view of the additional temptation and facilities for escape 
incident to the new irons, but in any cases where they can be 
safely used they are always applied." 

[The law in regard to this matter of the preceding legis- 
lature, meaning to "fortlnuith do aioay with the riveted irons," 
and which himself recommended with his mouth and pen, and 
official seal, had been practically ignored, and the foregoing is 
the Governor's excuse for the crime of torturing better men to 
put money into the contractors' pockets. They were getting 
hotel rates for keeping the prisoners without their labor ; yet 
the Governor ignored, violated tJie law, and favored their keep- 
ing their victims in heavy double irons, night and day, all the 
time, and so tJicy Jiad to sleep in, their dotliesfor years ! And this 



How TO Run a Reform Prison. 307 

to enable the contractors to more securely and with less guards 
coin their heart's blood into money ! 

And, moreover, did the irons on the men with the guard 
who fell asleep, hold them from escaping (?) : Certainly not. 
It was the little humanity exercised by the guard. These 
prisoners had axes in their hands to cut and break off their 
irons, and a rifle and pistol at their feet to defend themselves ; 
they were in the woods and the guard was asleep ! Yet his 
Excellency says officially in his message, that " in an}' cases 
where they can be safely used they [the moveable irons] are 
alivays applied." Say ! would any one but a tyrant iron such 
prisoners at all ? 

Even men confined to their beds with sickness were in 
double irons, and when the prisoners were moved away from 
this secret hell, these very ones were accorded all of their 
short time, as no bad conduct had ever been charged against 
them. Such was the real " kindness " and " nursing " (?) of the 
Governor and company. And the victims who so horribly suf- 
fered have a rigid that the truth he hioivn. 

The message continues. — " Moral instructors have been 
appointed, and have discharged the duties imposed faithfully, 
and ^vith decidedly satisfactory effect." 

[Yet they had no influence to reform any of the abuses or to 
liberate prisoners whom they knew to be innocent. 

" Those lives which you have labored to destroy. "'[ 

" I have," says the Governor, " issued but few pardons 
save under the statute allowing rebate of five days to each 
month for good behavior upon the recommendation of the 
superintendent." [Now, instead of his stating that the super- 
intendent ivas aliuays one of the contractors or their hand, and 
was loth to recommend seventy cents a day besides the labor 
out of their pockets, and that the law was therefore a humbug, 
needing to be changed as according to it, nearly all of the 
prisoners' conduct was bad, as he chose to be governed by the 
superintendent who was " the doctor, Governor, and the laic," he 
said the folloAving stuff : " This laAv is most salutary, inspiring 
good conduct with hope of reward which is always recognized 
by the pardoning power." 



308 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 



[Other States had laws securing a rebatement of about 
one-third of the time for good conduct ; and after the prisoners 
were finally taken from the contractors such a law was passed 
for them. But while the gang were getting big pay - or rather 
plunder— out of the prisoners and people, the Governors were 
satisfied with the old law which was no benefit at all to the 
prisoners and people, as the prisoners got no more short time 
after its passage than before. Most Governors can give as 
much short time as they please, with or without any special 
law. Sometimes prisoners are released by the Governor before 
they reach the prison at all, as has been seen. I thus call at- 
tention to the mere gabble and deceit, and rot of " great (?) 
state papers." " What fools we mortals be?"] 

The " State paper " continues. " The present contract for 
confining, guarding, and boarding of the prisoners will expire 
on the first day of August, 1884, and before your successors 
assemble ; it will be necessary for you to provide for future 
contingencies at this session. The present contractor has ful- 
filled his obligation to the Territory honorably and efficiently, has 
been at much expense in building the prison [with but one 
door], and stockade [of wood that the prisoners did] and pro- 
viding other necessary appliances [what were they?], has valu- 
able experience and is worthy of your considerate attention, if 
he presents a proposition to renew the contract." 

[Could any contract slave-trader plead his own case any 
better than this? The prison, etc., cost about $4,000; and 
those six paper prisoners alone would amount to $13,797 ! 

It is a wonder that he did not recommend that the " hon- 
orable " contractors be paid $15,000 for the loss (?) of the work 
of those absent or paper men.] 

" A law of Congress provides that all Territories, except 
Washington, shall have as a donation the United States pris- 
ons located within their respective domains, upon their admis- 
sion, as States. In view of this remarkable exception against 
us, I suggest that you petition Congress to give us the prison 
at McNeil's Island at the proper time, which, if secured, will 
afford an economical solution of the subject for the future." 

[This could have been gotten for $36,000 at the outset ; 
thus effecting a saving to the Territory of over $125,000 while 



How TO Run a Eeform Phison. 309 

these contracts were running, and over $125,000 more expended 
in the prison at "Walla Walla, as the prison on the island could 
be easily self-supporting and without using a single iron of 
any description or any other brutality. But the masonic com- 
mittee of the legislature reported, on examination, that " it ivas 
unsafe to keep prisoners.'" So they paid their brethren, with the 
people's money, hotel rates and their labor, to board and guard 
the prisoners, and furnish such a safer (?) place that they kept 
them in double irons night and day, all the time to hold them ! 

Is it not a burning outrage that such a gang of traitors and 
bribe-takers should be in office, and so fixed with the " good 
judiciary," that under the shadow of official authority they can 
murder, ravage and suck the heart's blood of their victims with 
impunity, and go pic-nicking with their plunder — these conquer- 
ing and crowned criminals ! And they have passed a law vir- 
tually making it a "crime " for anyone to show up their crimes 
to the people. And the courts virtually hold that their " per- 
sons and feelings are sacred," and that they " cannot be guilty 
in law of crime to be punished as other men," and that " out- 
siders have no rights or feelings that they must respect." 

From the Press : " The Seattle Herald recently accused the Argus of 
purchased silence in the matter of the penitentiary at Seatco, but makes 
amends honorable editorially in the follo-ning language :" "Oiu" state- 
ment made in a recent issue of the sUence of the Argus on the question of 
the necessity of investigation of the officers of the penitentiary is -with- 
drawn. The Aj-gus, as its rule is, gives its indorsation (at least to the extent 
of quotation) to our eflforts to expose an abuse of authority which is simply 
a disgrace to our coast, and a reflection on the civilization which we are 
proud to think characteristic of this country — even if we are far west." 

"Cruel." — " From members of the legislature the Seattle Chronicle 
learns of a state of affairs at tlie penitentiary that demands immediate and 
full investigation. The prisoners are clothed in the lightest sort of api^areL 
Their pants are usually dimgeree, and they have but the single pair. One 
man stated that he had had but one pair of pants in thirteen months — the 
time he had been there. ^VTien they work out and get wet, their clothes 
dried on them in bed. The heaviest irons are used — one man wearing 
twenty -five pound shackles for a niamber of years, but now they are seven- 
teen pounds. These shackles are never taken off — are worn night and day 
iintil the men step out free." 

The Tacoma Ledger said : "It is not at all surprising that [the gang] 
is opposed to the construction of a Territorial penitentiary .... The failure to 
build one might mean much money in the pocket of [the gang] . . . .China- 



310 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

men worked for ninety cents a day and were driven from the country. 
[The gang] hire out their slaves for fifty cents a day, and persons claiming 
to be enemies of cheap labor would aid in the perpetuation of this sys- 
tem." 

" Tlie Penitentiary." — "From time to time reports have oozed out 
from the penitentiary at Seatco. They have not varied much. The testi- 
mony coming from that sequestered place of confinement has swept in 
genei'al scope the same field, and laid practically the same charges at the 
door of the management of that institution. Two years ago the members 
of the legislature visited Seatco, and at that time, here and there, it was 
said that the treatment of the inmates was of a sort better adapted for the 
care of animals than human beings. It is a system wrong in principle, 
and doubly so in practice. It opens the door for the entrance of personal 
greed of gain, cruelty, and neglect of men so kept. . . .Against the manage- 
ment at Seatco the charge is made that the jjrisoners are not properly fed, 
are miserably clothed, and are often punished when there is not the slight- 
est reason for it. It is natural that a contractor should desire to make all 
he can out of his contract [but it is always in the power and province of 
the Governor to prevent any abuse]. They form sufficient basis for a far 
more rigid examination of the manner in which the institution is con- 
ducted. Hitherto the inspection has been no better than none — not so good 
in fact. The members of the legislature visiting Seatco have simply com- 
plied with the letter and not the spirit of the laws — abuse and criminal 
neglect should be prevented. Let the legislature make a careful examina- 
tion of the treatment of the prisoners at Seatco, and know from practical 
observation that the cupidity of contractors, and the natural thirst for 
cruelty, which is the usual result of absolute power, do not over-leap the 
line of simjjle justice." 

As TO THE HOSPITAL FOE THE INSANE AT STEILACOOM, 
WASH. — His Excellency (?) in his message says : " Personal observation 
and a study of the reports satisfy me that the affairs of the Hosj^ital for the 
Insane have been managed in an inteUigent, humane and economical man- 
ner, by the Board of Trustees, also that the medical and hygienic treat- 
ment have been eminently skillful and successful, and the general super- 
vision careful and thorough." 

An Inmate at the time writes. — " . . . .The patients are not guilty of 
crime biit are often over-Avorked. Brutal treatment is not the kind of 
usage which the government intended, this institution is conducted by 
brute force. The government of this institution is a failure. Profane and 
obscene language, that I never before heard of a parallel, is used by the 
wardens with one single exceiJtion. In conclusion I would state that the 
tax payers of Washington territory have a right to know of the dark and 
dreadful scenes that I have witnessed — the beating of patients for no just 
cause, that the heart sickens when we reflect that the records of barbarism 
fail to produce a parallel to this infamous treatment of innocent men, 



How TO Run a Reform Prison. 311 

guilty of no crime, and left wUhoul redress, who are threutetied >cilh sudden 
and terrible penalties if they reveal the facts in any case irhatt^er. I l>f»lieve 
in an almiglity and merciful providence ; I resorted to that sonri'e, and 
from that I received courage to divulge the base conduct of those en- 
trusted with the care of those unfortunate patients. I am only doing 
what my conscience dictates. The fear of man is not worthy of a serious 
and candid thought." 

Geo. W. Sloan. 

From the Press. — '' Adjudyed Insane". "Two inquests in lunacy 
were held in the Probate court yesterday. [Blank] and Geo. White were 
adjudged insane, and committed to the Asylum. In the case of the latter 
a trial was demanded and granted. In the course of the e^'ideuce "it 
came out " that White was laboring under the delusion that a conspiracy 
had been formed against liis Hfe, and he accordingly went armed to the 
teeth, anti kej^t a constant lookoiit for his supposed enemies. A bowie 
knife and revolver were taken from his jjerson. Judge [Blank] considered 
him an unsafe man to be at large, and gave judgment accordingly." 

[Reflect ! that with control of the courts, press, and secret 
" asylums " (?), how easy it would be for the gang to thus put 
a victim out of the way, when, after conspiring against his life 
and property, they find that he is aware of their job and has 
armed himself accordingly for his defense. Such conspiracies 
are often real and riot a " deluLsion " at all — as the remains of so 
many victims seo'etly murdered, and the wrecks of many homes 
are witnesses. And this Judge most likely had a pistol in his oivn 
pocket at the time, to kill somebody. 

As example of how victims are shanghaied from other 
States, to be buried alive in living tombs where the " manage- 
ment is so ' humane ! aiid careful ' (?) to keep them from ' making 
trouble.' " 

I give the follo-n-ing from the Press : — "V. ... B. . . . is thrice more 
sane than her tormentors, and she is unjustly held in the Steilacoom 
asylum. The idea that she should be held there in solitary confinement to 
prevent her from exposing a villain, while he is allowed to run at large in 
this State, is prejjosterous. Every disinterested person who has \isited 

V B. . . . A\'illingly states that they believe her to be sane. A physician 

who was called expressly to see her, scorns the idea that she is not in her 
right mind, and if her friends desire to do her justice, let them comply 
with the demands of the poor girl, and have her examined thoroughly by 
two or three physicians, and not entice her away into a strange land, have a 
secret examination, and then, before she knows what is the matter, have her 
locked in a cell." 



312 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

". .Why was it, that in establishing her insanity, two common laboring 
men, whom V . . . . B . . . . never saw in her life before — as she states — were 
brought foi-warcl to testify, when she was examined in Washington 
Territory as to her sanity ; and who was the physician who conducted that 
examination ? It would be interesting to the people to know. If they 
were to go to Steilacoom and there see the tears course do^Ti the cheeks of 
a poor girl, hear her supijlicatious for deliverance from her enemies, and 
listen to her sensible talk on all subjects, a visitor might suggest, they 
would perhaps change their opinion in relation to the matter. V . . . . 
B. . . . asks only for an honest examination, and 2^ public one ; at the hands 
of physicians selected by disinterested parties, and she should have it. It 
will do no harm to her, and will satisfy the public mind." 

Were it not for the law (heretofore given) forbidding cen- 
sorship as to her out-going letters, hoiv tvould the ''public mind'" 
become interested to care about her fate ; she was thus enabled to 
make her case known, to gain friends, when the press outside of 
the territory {and gang) agitated and plead her cause. And so 
the paper {Portland 3Iercury, of September 16, 1883) continues: 

"As the case now stands, the girl has friends, and is getting them by 
the score every day, and if Lawyer [Blank] does not want a hornet's nest 
of public opinion around his ears, he will come to the front, and not only 
eiJighten the people as to how he managed to get her into the insane 
asylum, but who jiaid the bills and who gave the medical examination. 
V. . . . B. . . . from the api^earance of things is unjustly detained at the 
Steilacoom asylum [with its "hKjyume und careful and thorough " manage- 
ment !] and if those she is calling on, do not come to her assistance, she 
wiU go wild with grief and become a maniac to a certainty ^ \^Many are 

thus MADE INSANE.] 

[When the legislature met, one of the members, disregard- 
ing the Governor's message as to the " humane and careful 
management " of the institution, was instrumental in having 
the girl released, and she went forthwith to work, setting type 
in a printing office — so she was not very insane; the "good 
judiciary " and Governor to the contrary notwithstanding. 

No prison should ever be entrusted to men who love dark- 
ness and mystery better than light and truth. 

No doubt there were, and are at this very time, lohen you are 
reading this, many innocent and sane victims there, as well as 
elsewhere ; for brutal keepers could prevent them from making 
their cases knoivn in spite of the laio to the contrary. And even 



How TO Run a Eefokm Prison. 313 

this Governor was, by a successor, recommended to the legis- 
lature, for A TRUSTEE TO THIS VERY INSTITUTION. 

It should h'. made by laiv DEATH ON SIGHT, to any ofl&cial 
squelching any prisoner's case from the public. And a majori- 
ty of the voters of any county shoidd he empoiuered hy laiv to re- 
lease a prisoTier from an asylum ; and two-thirds from any other 
prison. 

There are societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals; 
will not the plaintive wails of human suffering find any willing 
and earnest ears ? 

Says the Poi-tland, Oregon, News: — "A prominent man of Chilialis, 
Wasliington Territory, wlio is m the city, says that many jDersons are sent 
to the insane asylum at Steilacoom who are as sane as those who commit 
them. An investigation -would be justice to those who are evidently \dctim8 
of official ignorance." 

[Ignoranx;e (?) is it ? Then let the people judge !] 

Once again : — "James Balch was discharged from the asylum at 
Steilacoom on the 18th inst. [1888] on a writ of habeas corpus. He has been 
an inmate of the asylum for five years, and claims to have been perfectly 
sane all the time." 

Expert testimony. — "In the case of a woman, who had been confined 
two years in the asylum, five experts testified that she was perfectly sane, 
and that her confinement as a lunatic was an outrage; but those who were 
interested in keeping her shut up broiaght forward five other experts who 
swore that she was crazy and unfit to be at large. This illustrates the 
usual efi'ect of expert testimony by which courts and juries are bewildered 
and rendered incajiable of rendering just decisions. 

Under the j^ractice which commonly prevails in the trial of insanity 
and patent cases, and suits for damages for bodily injury, experts are hired 
to give an opinion for the side on which they are employed. They are 
advocates rather than witnesses, and their employment as such is one of 
the most notorious abuses that now flourish in our courts." 

As TO THE Territorial University, the Governor, in his 
message, has never a ivord to say as to the wholesale stealing 
by the Masons, of the lanils belonging to it, though he asks that 
the legislature appropriate the people's money to run this 
looted institution ; and looted with impunity ! And he says, 
" Five thousand and fifty-seven acres of University lands, as 
donated by Congress, have not yet been selected." 



314 A Pilgrimage in Hell. 

From the Presx : — " The number of acres (of University lands) still 
remaining unselected is only 500 or 600, instead of 5,000, as reported by 
Governor [Links]. Some years ago 75,000 acres of choice timber land 
were picked out by a commission, and set aside for the benefit of a Univer- 
sity. The land is all gone -with the exception of some 500 acres, and 
nothing to show for it, but a modem structure that cost about $10,000; 
and the land on which it stands goes to other parties should the Uni- 
versity ever be moved. Would it not be well for the people of the Queen 
City to investigate this matter and see where the $250,000, now due said 
Territorial University, have gone ? And yet, in the face of all this, Seattle 
[and the Governor] persists in asking the legislature for an appropriation 
each session, to keeji it from being rented out for a lodging house. There 
has been a mystery hanging over our Territorial University since its found- 
ation, and it has never been a credit to oiir people and Territory. No 
doubt, the time will come when an investigation will be called, and the true 
inwardness and condition be known." 

[The ring press called this Governor's message a " Great State Paper. " 
And the secret brethren could afford to do so.] 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Prison experience, continued. — My personal efiforts and that of my friends 
for my release from the Bastile, for some kind of a l)-ial, and for only 
a respectful hearing. — The result, etc. — "Truth wears no mask, bows 
at no human shrine, seeks neither place nor applause, she only asks a 
healing." — Letters of my wife ; governors, judges, and various other 
persons, and correspondence. — Petitions, recommendations, etc., etc., 
how they were treated, etc., etc. 

oOON after mj arrival at Seatco, I addressed a letter to the 
Governor, giving him a concise statement of my case and situa- 
tion. I begged him to investigate the matter, and gave him 
reference as to the same, so that he could do so with very little 
trouble. I also asked him to state to me what showing and 
proof and kind of petition he would require to release me. 

But he would not even answer my letter. 

He was a Freemason ring man, so what did he care for me 
or mine, so long as none of the secret brethren complained ? 

I was bringing into the gang seventy cents a day besides 
my labor, and my home and family were being ravaged ; which 
condition of cruel persecution and pillage was entirely satis- 
factory to his Excellency (?). 

I had approached him in a very civil, open, frank, honest 
way, without any mystic signs or middleman of secret intrigue 
and corruption. I simply wanted a respectful hearing, and for 
him to correct a brutal, corrupt, and hellish outrage, which by 
his official oath he was sivorn to do. Yet he spurned me even a 
hearing ! His time being about out, it was not thought possi- 
ble that another such as he would be appointed. He had been 
in office when the infamous, brutal sivindle of a contract job ivas 
done, and tJie Seatco Bastile established ; therefore it was not to 
be expected that he had any heart, humanity, or sense of 
justice. 

* ' You disdained and renounced viy justice, and turned aside and 
wounded ^nth a stab my honest pride — to repress the manly swelHng in 
my breast." 

As it was thus evident that nothing good could be accom- 

( 16) 



316 Stuuggung for Liberty. 

plished with him, my friends delayed getting up petitions until 
the new Governor would take his seat. This was the " Galli- 
nipper," who was soon afterwards appointed, but he did not 
arrive to assume the office until late in October, (1880). 

Meanwhile and afterwards, my wife and others wrote as 
follows : 

"Home, July 26, 1879. 

Deab Husband : — I received your letter last night ; your atUice is 
good as it always is, and has always been, and I ■nill try very hard to pro- 
fit by it ; but there are many disadvantages to contend with, more es- 
pecially to be obliged to borrow money to save oi;r home from being 
swept away, and all of us left homeless ; but your attorneys shall not have 
our home they tried so hard to get ; they, who undertook to defend you, 
and extorted all of our means, and then gave you away xsithout even an 
effort to save you. Those whom I have talked to about it say, that "of 
all the trials they ever heard of, this beats anything yet ; " not even one- 
half of your witnesses used. It is the most unjust aflfair ever recorded, 
and if the Governor could only get to know the wltole trulli, you woiild be 
sent home at once. Neighbor after neighbor speak of the injustice you 
have to suffer, and say that you were " such a good neighbor " to live by. 

Even Mr exclaimed, to a company who were discussing the outrage 

you are suffering : "I am an old man, and can say that I never lived by 
a more honest, upright man, and kinder neighbor than he, and he was the 
same to all as he was to me." 

And, my dear husband, there is not that person Hving who can say 

ought against you, and tell the truth 

but do not blame me, George, and when you think of it, "think tender- 
ly of me, for I am travel-worn — my feet are pierced with many a thorn 
when dreamless rest is mine, I shall not need the tenderness for which I 
long to-night. 

If I should die to-night, you would call to mind — with loving thought 
some kindly deed my icy hand had wrought — some gentle Avord my frozen 
lips had said — errands on which my willing feet had sped. The memory 
of my selfishness and pride, my hasty words, would all be put aside, and I 
would rest forgiven of all to-night." Effie." 

"AiigustSth, 1879. 
.... I just received your letter. Children are all in bed, and I am here all 

alone to-uight ; would to God I was with you Mr. S. .was here to-day, 

he says that every one says that your attorneys did not defend you at all ; 
he says come to him and he will work with and assist me in making the 
truth known to the Governor. And Mr. B . . . . told me the same. P . . . . 
and H . . . are very warm friends. I have a good deal of confidence in 
Mr. S. . . for he is a very smart man and well posted in law, and his 
advice is the same </.s yours ; . . . had you got justice you would have been 



Thrilling Correspondence. 317 

cleared at i^reliminary trial, but tbey don't go according to law here I 

enclose children's i^ictures. ... I can only say beyovrovn dear aelf, and you 
will be all right; . . . write often, for if you exi)ect me to live, you must not 
forget that I Uve only on cheering words from you; your letters to me are 
as some life-8a^^ng boat to a drowning man, . . . and now good night. 'We 
miss thee at home, yes, ve miss thee — there lingers one gloomy shade 
round me that only your presence can hght. ' Your loving wife, 

Eftie." 

" Home, September 28, 1879. 
Inez and Clyde have been sick, and May is unwell. I am about the 

same ' Leave me not yet — leave me 

not cold and lonely; leave not the life that borrows from thee only, all of 
dehght and beauty it hath. Tell me not time (whose wing my brow has 
shaded), has whithered spring's sweet bloom within my heart. Ah, no; 
the rose of Love is yet unfaded, though hope of joy, its sister flower, 
depart. Leave me not, my human teacher, lonely and lost in this cold 
water of ours. Heaven knows, I need thy music and thy help, still to be- 
guile me on my weary way. To lighten to my soul the cares of duty, to 
charm my wild heart in the worldly revel — lest I too join the aimless, false 
and vain. Let me not lower to the soulless level of those whom now I pity 

and disdain. Oh, fly not to Heaven, or let me share thy flight. ' 

Effie. " 

" October 29th, 1879. 
.... I have been very sick. I am so tired, and worried to death nearly. 
.... I only hope to live to circulate i:)etition, and to succeed in seeing you 
home once more, and if I fail, death will be a welcome messenger. I 

am so tired of seeing our property going, that we worked so hard for 

Effie. " 

" Home, November 3d, 1879. 
My Deak Husband : — I wrote you a few days ago, but this being 
Sunday, I thought I would write you a long letter. I am getting better, 
but gain strength so slow. ... I am well enough to walk out to ihe granary. 
Clarence has gone to church with Carrie. . . .IfoundMr. J. . . . the same true 
friend — upholding you in everything I will get Mr. B. . . . [an eye wit- 
ness to the fight] to sign a statement, same as he told Mr. B . . . . , Mr. 
H . . . . and others after the fight. And will also get them to send a state- 
ment of the same ; will also have Mr. and Mrs. H. . . . send to the Governor, 
what Mrs. [Jumjier] said [Jumper] said when he left the house with his 
gun [to murder me]. I will also get jjeople here to write to the Governor 
that they beUeve Mc .... swore to a lie as to you liaN-ing threatened [Jum- 
per] , as many have expressed themselves so, and he teUs difl'erent and con- 
flicting stories yet about it. [This was the only neighbor not on my 
petition]. L. . . . told me right after the fight that 'it was a mystery to 



318 Struggling for Liberty. 

Mm why the first shot did not kill us both,' — and that at his (Jumper's) 
second shot, ' Mr. France would never have known what killed him, if I 
had not stnick down the muzzle of the gun, as it was aimed past me at 
his heart. ' B . . . . also told the same story, and he told me that you ' was 
not to blame, that you did just right,' [which is the verdict of all who 

know my case, except thieves and members of the gang] The 

children are all well, but Clyde has been sick. Inez is a great, big girl and 
pretty as a picture — hair just as curly. May is growing very fast and is 
almost boss of the j^lace. Clarence is also groA\ing fast. You would hardly 
know me. I am so poor — am very tired, and as you see ver\' nervous. I 
expected to be able to see you this fall, but money is so scarce [the brutal 
traitors and thieves were spending it for whiskey and other vices] . But 
I will be there after you some of these days — soon as I can get around to 
it Your loving wife, Effle. " 

"Home, February 1st, 1880. 
My Deak Husband ; — Everything has been a whirl of excitement and 

trouble I have been so sick, and mother was buried a week ago 

yesterday and failure to raise money when due, all combined 

Judge W. will not now sign petition, as he and the Governor are enemies; 
and says, that ' to sign it, while he is Governor, would only prolong your time, 

as he would pay no other attention to his sig-nature in your favor. ' 

I can speak above a whisper only part of the time. The children are well 
and ha\'ing a big play Your own loving wife, Effie." " 

" Home, April 4th, 1880. 

Mr. N. . . . sends me word that he had written to you [the 

letter was squelched, as was i^sual] and says that he will use all the influ- 
ence he has in your behalf. Mr. H says the same also 

Effie." 

" Home, May 4th, 1880. 
. . . .George, I now hope to see you soon, if all things are as we now 
expect. . . .1 wish I could just steji in for you to-night. Babies are all asleep 
and well — Clarence and May started for school to-day .... We think that 
Judge W. . . . will now sign petition. [Note. — But while the Judge said 
he would not oppose my pardon at any time, he maintained that ' ' it was 
no part of his business to solicit any man's restoration, that this is the 
Governor's province, and for him to exercise whenever it appears projjer 
to do so."] . . . .Enclosed find locks of Clidie's and Inie'shair. Also copy of 
letter from Bro. O . . . . and Mr. H . . . . with his jietition, the other has not 
come yet Effie M. France. " 

"April 1st, 1880. 

My old Friend George. — Enclosed find petition of such represen- 
tative men of Ulster county, N. Y., who knew j- our father's family of their 
own personal acquaintance; and our representative in Congress then secur- 



Thrilling Correspondence. 319 

ed some signatures, outside of Ulster county, that I don't know, except by 
reputation. 

I would be glad to do anything in my power for you, knowing that 
you were always right when here, and we have no doubt as to the situation 
of the affair out there. 

Do not get discouraged ; an honest man is the noblest work of God. 
And any man who attempts to hve honest, must meet just such trials and 
difficulties as you have gone through, unless he will consent to buy his 
peace. 

Knowing your strictly moral and honest habits and disposition from 
childhood, I feel there must be some way for you to be restored. 

Judge Westbrook said, he thought the President had the pardoning 
power of a territory. Anyway, if pardon is denied by the Governor, have 
petitions returned to you for future reference. [But the blackleg Govern- 
ors would nevei' do /his.] 

If there is anything I can do for you, please make it known and it shall 
be done, if possible. 

Still hoping for the best, I remain your true friend, 

C. A. J. Habdenbekgh, 
Supervisor of the Town of Shawangunk, Ulster county." 
[Afterwards Assemblyman.] 

Wm. Lounsbekry, M. C, Ulster county. 
H. Westbeook, Judge Supreme Court. 
Eob't a. Snyder, Sheiiff, Ulster county. 
AiiTON B. Eeuben, Surrogate, " 
Chas. a. Foster, Senator, " 

Thos. E. Benerich, Member Assembly. 
Peter D. Lefever, " " 

J. M. Batley, " " 

Frederick Mllls, " " 

E. M. Madden, Senator. 
John H. Eogen, Teller. 

Mr. H. had been justice of the peace for eighteen consecutive years, 
and was all the time the most trusted representative of the people of his 
section in various capacities. 

I will here state that, which none but a thief and liar will 
deny, that my good character and innocence of any crime from 
the cradle to the gang's Bastile, was established as truly and 
plainly as can any other man in this Territory, in or out of 
prison, establish his. But only to find tliat I had less con- 
sideration and security to enjoy the fruits of my honorable 
toil and unflawed character, than did the blood-sucking shys- 



320 Struggling for Liberty. 

ters and robbers tlie fruits of their secret intrigue and crime. 
" Moral distinctions die out of the minds of wicked men. 
They become incapable of moral judgment or of any sensation 
of pity. The despoilers of homes seek the cover of night and 
the protection of banded crime for their wickedness." 

"When the meanest citizen is oppressed, the proudest 
might well tremble. " 

"Home, June 29th, 1880. 
My Deak Husband : — . . . .Have been circulating petition, but hear 
that the Governor will not come out here [from the States] until fall ;. . . . 
will complete it when we get ready to go to Olympia. [She gives the names 
of ten persons as the only ones who refused to sign jjetition for my release, 
and they were either members of the gang, or were ignoi'ant of my case.] 
' Three weeks ago I weighed 122 pounds ; to-day 104 pounds. I have a 
fever every day ... I tell you we will go icell prepared to the Governor, with 
strong petitions, etc., etc., and think it will be about the first of October. 
Effie. " 

" August 24:th, 1880. 
.... Children have the whooping cough .... I am taking medicine for my 
lungs — horehound honey, tar and rum — and I have to take for my liver 
may-apple-root, and then add to that bitters to strengthen and make me 
eat. I get tired before I get around. [I had always kejjt my family and 
myself in good health without drtigs or doctors ; but such trouble is kill- 
ing to those who innocently suflfer, though it be considered by the robbing 
home ravagers as but paying sjsort to them. Indeed, the misery of their 
victims is to them the essence of delight, and they think it tends to their 
safety to break the health and spirits of such as are best esteemed by 
others for their virtue, and even to resolve upon their utter destruction.] 

"Home, September 19th, 1880. 

There is yet seventy acres of grain to harvest, 

this ninety acres on homestead is threshed 

Wheat only thii-ty-five cents, delivered. [But hogs were a good 
price, and I had my farm stocked to feed up all I could raise 
on the whole 480 acres, which was mostly well fenced for the purpose. I 
was fixed so that I could have made SI, 500 to ^2,000 a year clear. And 
this I intended to invest mostly in stock each year, which with their in- 
crease would, in a few years, amount to S50,000, which will give an idea 
as to this, the least phase of the ravage done me by the gang of robbers, 
backed by a rotten government. Hogs were as high as eight cents on foot, 
but my large stock of them, together with my other stock and most every- 
thing else, was sacrificed and wasted away by my situation, until my 
family and affairs were swamjied in a general wreck so that the midnight 
conspirators could fatten on human misery and blood.] 



Thrilling Correspondence. 321 

" December 20th, 1880. 
As I have written you before I am not able to under- 
take the jonmey to Olympia, so I have written to the Governor explaining 

why I do not go, and Mr. N . . . . and P have written also ; and now 

the petitions, etc., \n\l foUow the letters. I would much rather have 
taken them to the Governor, but I cannot go, and trust that sending them 
will do as well Effie. " 

" January 28th, 1881. 

I am anxiously looking for some word from you, and we 

look for you by the 10th of February if not sooner will meet you 

in Dayton I have so much to tell you get Clarence a knife, 

Clyde a gun, and May and Inez each a doll [Think !] . .am so 

nervous, could talk better than write. BeHe^•iug you Avill be home inside 
of two weeks, I will close and wait until I see you. I am waiting. 

' "Waiting, quietly waiting. 

To hear his step at the door ; 
Starting at every murmur, 

Striving to rest once more: 
Stilling her heart's wild beating. 

With hands clasped over her breast, 
Praying for peace and patience, 

Patience and i^eace and rest. 

Long are the hours of dayhght, 

Weary and dull and long ; 
Life's work seemeth a burden 

Hushed is her lute, her song : 
Waiting, forever waiting. 

For day to fade in the sky ; 
Waiting for night's dark shadow 

Which brings the loved one nigh. 

Waiting with painful longing. 

To lay his head on her heart ; 
Waiting, though knowiMg always. 

That they must forever part : 
Powerless now to resist it. 

The love which unbidden has gro^vn, 
Like ivy — creeping and chnging — 

In love round the granite stone. 

Waiting A\-ithout an effort 

To cast his image afar ; 
Looking at him as travelers 

Look to the evening star. 

21 



322 Struggling for Liberty. 

Waiting, though knowing to-moiTOW 

"Will unite them — yes, for aye — 
But waiting and hoping and wdshing 

To see him once more to-day.' Effte." 

" Home, February lOtli, 1881. 

We are hoiirly expecting you home, as the petitions, etc., 

etc. , to the Governor were mailed the 18th of January, over three weeks 

ago, and you have probably received money (.^50) If this is a 

failure, but I cannot think it is, I shall see you in the spiing, for I will go 

and see you and the Governor myself Oh, George, 

I am with you in my dreams every night and all the day I can do 

nothing but wait as patiently as I can They say, ' George will 

come as fast as he can. ' Oh, do not tarry a moment. 

' All throtigh the day, watching for you. 
Though I am far away I ■vvdll be near you ; 
I cannot cheer you, yet I will stay, 
I will be near you all through the day. 

All through the day, seeking in vain. 
Wings for the hours — weighted mth pain 
All things are drear — nothing is gay. 
Yet I ■will be with you all through the day. 

Worn is my frame, wan is my cheek. 

Low are my accents, broken and weak. 

Yet sweet to think of you all day, 

And I will be with you, all through. the day. Effte." 

From a friend visiting my wife at this time : 

"At yoxjr Home, February 10th, 1881. 
Deak Feiend : — We are looking every time the dog barks to see if 

you are coming I almost laiow the Governor cannot pass your 

petitions by, but would be much better satisfied if Mrs. F . . . . had taken 

it herself. Mr started a week ago to meet you, and we are hourly 

looking for you. I am writing this and, at the same time, hoping you 
may not get it till it returns. But if you are fated to stay there until 
this may reach you, and it hel^js to i^ass a lonely moment, I shall consider 

it was not Avritten in vain Children are caUing in as 

they pass from school to hear if you have come and if you delay 

longer than Saturday, I am afraid I will not have the pleasure to help 
welcome you to your own dear home and family. 

Your friend, Mrs. F. G. M. . . 

From a sister : — All of my people being in accord with 
her as to my case, as are my friends also elsewhere ; none 



Thriujng Correspondence. 323 

of whom have been able to discover any fault of mine to 
justify the robbery and persecution practised against me, and 
are alike startled at the plain and evident fact, that a peace- 
ful, law-abiding, well-to-do, respected citizen can be thus 
shanghaied from his hard and well earned home, to be pil- 
laged of his livelihood, liberty, love and happiness, and con- 
demned to a horrible, lingering, tedious death, without re- 
course that even a cannibal would get in his own country. 

' ' A Sister's ceaseless tears. 

Needs no imploring, passionate appeaV 

" September 19tli, 1879. 

My Deab Bkothek :— If ever in the world there 

was a case of justifiable homicide, yours is clearly and surely one ; and to 
me and to us all, it is very strange the jury did not see it in that Hght. 
You certainly pursued an upright, straightforward course in the matter, 

AoinQ just what you should have dofie A strange community, 

indeed, you must have been surrounded by to permit such work. But be 
patient, by the time the upright portion of your community have time to 
get their eyes open to a just sense of right and -wTong, you will be par- 
doned out M. J. S. " 

Everybody, except members of the gang, or those having 
had experience, thought that just as soon as one's neighbors 
who knew the man and the case best of all, should petition for 
his restoration to them that the Governor was bound to act 
accordingly : little did they think that the blacklegs would 
spurn to even look at their petitions, when secretly opposed to 
members of the gang. 

"September 1879, 

We would very much rather have you right and where you 

are than wrong at home That L . . . . must have been a 

veiy silly fellow to have lost his balance of mind as he did. . . .you was 
the one [Jumper] was after, and L . . . . only an obstacle in his way ; and 
just as soon as he could jerk the gun from him, of course, you was the 
one he woiild have killed. . . .You are mistaken about one thing you wrote 
to the Governor, ' that your chUdreu were disgraced ; ' now that is a very 
mistaken idea ; had you committed a crime, then the case would have been 
a very different one. No, no, there is no such thing as disgrace about it 
to you or yours. . . .Think of the Chisholm affair in Mississippi ? see how 
much worse off" — the Judge and two children murdered. . . .and as I said 
before, you must consider the class of men you had to deal with. . . .Your 
statement is just a straightforward thing, and I am glad you published it 



324 Steuggling for Liberty. 



and so are we all What a shame to the Territory to allow such work as 

has been enacted with you. Your loving sister, M. J. S." 

"December 28th, 1879. 

He who assaults another's lif es by that action forfeits his 

own — the same may be allowed in defence of our property when violence 
is menaced .... The verdict is a mystery to be solved .... Here, or in any 
other civilized community, the verdict would have been "served the 
villain right." If a man's rights are no better protected than that, it is a 
very bad place to Hve M. J. S . . . . " 

"March 9th, 1880. 

Do not think that truth and virtue is at discount in the world 

because, by adheiing strictly to these and other virtues — aa in your case — 
you be lodged for a season in prison ; that is no proof of those virtues 
being wrong ; they have triumphed in the past and will in the f utiire, 
and you will live to see it M. J. S . . . . " 

"January 3d, 1881. 
Dear Brother : — Be patient, my boy, and you ■will not be there long, 
and we wish the Governor to turn up something for you as a redress for 

the wrongs you and your family have suffered And be 

thankful also, George, that your children are spared to see you through, 
and vindicated as you surely must be, as the truth, though crushed for a 

time, will surely rise triumphant in the end. Trust in the Lord 

M. J. S." 

" March 1st, 1881. 

You say all shall be compensated for their trouble for you. 

Now, George, never repeat such an idea, we are simply doing our duty 

and i^leasure The deep sympathy of our natures bound towards you 

in your unjust trouble, and there is nothing in our jjower that we would 
not do to extricate you from it We are all so anxious to hear the re- 
sult of petitions, etc. We think of you day and night, you \\-ill never 
know how my mind reverts to you in all possible times. . . .may the Lord 
bless the present efforts M. J. S . . . . " 

"JiinelSth, 1881. 

How grieved we all are to hear of Governor [Links] course. 

Dear me, when will the end come ? we must tnist to God and try to 

look up through this black, dismal cloud in faith — kno^-ing there is a 
silver lining, though we are not able to see it yet. But, George, the silver 

lining is surely there And now -with assurance that we will 

do aU in our power for your release M. J. S. . . ." 

" February 16th, and April 8th, 1882. 

I doubt not that in time all the 7ni/sleries of your 

unjust imprisonment Avill be unveiled I beheve your being con- 



Thrilling Correspondence. 325 

fined — unjustly though it be — saved your Hfe from those enemies that rose 
up so venomously against you, for they seemed determined on your de- 
struction, and there is no telling what means they would have used to 

accomplish their foul ends See how Paul was persecuted, and 

why ? It was not for any wrong act of his, but because he was straight- 
forward in doing his Christian duty. "We are very sony to hear of your 

ill health Time is a great restorer of rights, and avenger of wrongs. 

Your neighbors and townsmen strongly petitioned for your re- 
lease, but .... has veiy evidently been corruptly tampered with 

M. J. S. . ." 

Two of my witnesses had been controlled to testify when 
on the stand, that Jumper's carbine, at his second shot, was 
aimed at my near companion (L — ) instead of at me, so that I 
would be defending another man's life instead of my own. But 
as they had from the fight and for about nine (9) months there- 
after declared that the second shot was aimed at me, and there 
being three men at Seatco who had been in jail with these two 
witnesses, and had heard them very frequently say that "it 
was aimed behind L — at me," I therefore desired to get their 
afiidavits, with those of other men, to establish this fact beyond 
any dispute. 

L — had forthwith after the fight so declared it, and in a 
complaint for Jumper and partner's arrest, which he wrote out 
himself, had also sworn that this second shot " was aimed past 
him at me," and the other witness had always so stated it (and 
DOES NOW, 1889) to even his wife, tvJio neve?- knew he had ever con- 
tradicted it until I informed her after my release. " Why ! " she 
said, "He always told me and others that the gun was aimed 
past L— at you, and L — striking it down saved your life and 
killed the horse." 

If the Governor hesitated in releasing me, I wanted him to 
give me some kind of a trial (inasmuch as I had never had any) 
to enable me to bring out and establish such matters as these. 
So I wrote to a notary public to come and take these affidavits 
for me, and received the following reply : 

"Tenino, November 17th, 1879. 

Geo. W. Fkance, Esq., Seatco. 
Deajr Sir : — I Avill be at Seatco last of this week or first of next, when 
I will attend to your business. Yours truly, F. R. B. ."" 



326 Struggling for Liberty. . 

But I was not to be allowed to positively destroy the only 
point that served the gang as a pretext for " convicting " (?) and 
plundering me ; therefore, though B . . was frequently at the 
bastile, I could not get the business done. Once I was told 
that the Notary had left word for me " to have the papers 
signed and send them to him, and he would do the " acknowl- 
edging at home and forward them on to the Governor for me." 
This was evidently a trick to squelch the business as they would 
a letter, and B . . being one of the charitable (?) brethren, was 
willing not to interfere with their game of torture. 

Here is a copy of a letter I wrote to B . . over three months 
after I commenced to try to get this business done, and / ivas 
trying all the time. 

•'Seatco, W. T., February 16tli, 1880. 

F. E. B. . Esq., Tenino. 
Deak Sir : — "Will you please be so kind as to attend to that business 
for me at your earliest possible convenience ? Please to consider my sit- 
uation, and that I am unjustly imprisoned — wbicli fact I will establish in 
part by the three affidavits that I am so anxious for you to take, as I de- 
sire to send them at once to the Governor, or to accompany a petition 
from my home. Very truly, Geo. W. Feance." 

Of course, with an honest Governor one's life would not 
be thus trifled with, and haggled and flayed. But such, my 
countrymen, is practical masonry. Have I not seen it ? Have 
I noi felt and suffered it for so many years ? Bo7it I know that 
this is so ? 

On the first visit of Governor [Links], I being in the din- 
ing room, easily got an interview with him. I referred him to 
the briefs of my case that I and others had sent to the execu- 
tive office before, and that petitions would soon be sent to him, 
and got him to promise that if there should be any opposition 
or objection to my release that he would let me know forthwith 
by whom it was made, and give me an opportunity to meet and 
disprove it. But I could not get him to state anymore than I 
could his predecessor, " what showing he would require to release 
a prisoner," but he repeatedly said he " would consider my 
case very carefully," etc., etc., and I being so plainly innocent, 
and having such strong proof of it, and such petitions withal it, 
(lid seem to me that there could not be another being in human 



ThEILLING CORKESrONDENCE. 327 

form and aspect, so brutal, so corrupt, so blood-thirsty and cruel 
as to reject aud spurn it all, that he might gloat over the misery 
and heart's blood of his victims. I told the Governor how I 
was denied the right to attend to my business as to the affida- 
vits, etc., but instead of his seeing to it that none should be 
denied such ^dtal rights, he settled it by saying that I " could 
just send the papers in to him simply signed, and he would 
consider them as though they were sworn to." He thus joined 
in squelching my case. 

"For where is now that hour or hallowed day. 
When plundering villains cease to prowl for prey ? 
Mvhaustless wealth their boundless bosoms crave. 
While thieves concealed in every guise ice view." 

Yery soon after this visit of the Governor my petitions 
and other papers were sent in to him. But for a long time 
afterwards — though I wrote the most plaintive appeals to his 
supposed sense of justice and humanity, aud begged of him not 
to thus torture aud destroy all that was dear and worth living 
for to me and mine — jei I could get nothing out of him, but 
that he was " considering " my case. Oh ! what a hateful, 
treacherous word that " considering " got to be. Still he would 
give me to understand that he would presently " act on my 
case." And when I would ask him if any one opposed my release 
he would always reply that "wo one opposed it." 

I tried, time and again, to get him to " name some point as 
to which he was in doubt as to my innocence, and I would 
undertake to satisfy him with indisputable proof as to the 
same." But this he would never, never do. He would speak 
of the " unusual strength of my petitions," and would not say 
that he needed anything added thereto or any further proof of 
my innocence, or any further informcdion ivhcdsoever. 

A person that went to see him in my behalf reported that 
" the Governor says your petitions are the strongest he ever satv" 
and that " from what he said, I think you will go out in a few 
days" and shortly afterwards the Governor told me that he 
" would act on my ease in a few da3's," and he said it in such a 
manner that I and others near me thought that I would surely 
go, when I received the following : 



328 Sruggling for Liberty. 

" Home, April 12th, 1881. 

Oh ! My Deae Husband. — I have received a letter from Governor 
[Links] and he gives me no encouragement, though he don't say he will 
not release you. 

I was so sure that he would act favorably. I do not know what to do 
next. Oh ! everylhing is so dark 

' I have kept you ever in my heart, dear George, 
Through mouths of good and ill. 
Ol^r souls cannot be torn aj^art, 
They are bound together still. 

I never knew how dear you were to me, 
Till I was left alone. 

I thought my poor, poor heart would break 
The day they told me you were gone. 

Perhaps we'll never, never meet 
Upon this Earth again. 
But there, where happy angels greet, 
You'll meet your Effie there. 

Together up the ever shining shoi-e 

We will tread ■with trusting heart; 

Together through the bright eternal day, 

And never more to pai-t. ' Effie." 

["The greatest affliction humanity can siaffer, is the agony of prolong' 
ed suspense." 

"Corroding griefs and slow consuming care, 
"Kts. fii'mly resolved your injured heart to tear.'' 

^' Long as his actions 'scape the public view. 
Whatever his passions promi^t, he dares to do."] 

" Home, May 10th, 1881. 

But, Oh! It seems to me that you nnll come. I am with you so often in my 
dreams. Last night it seemed, it was not a dream. I was Avith you, and 
the warm kisses seem to Knger yet on my hps. You will never be more 
natural and real in life, than you were last night in my dream 

I am sitting by the window, looking — when not Avriting — on the green 
hills and the tall, gloomy pines; they are the only things that do not 
change — always the same — and thinking of the past. 

"Why does everything rise in my mind so vividly this morning — there 
seems to be a something before me; it does not seem to be evil either — I 

almost dare to think it is something good I am 

having the garden planted to-day. I think of how we used to make 
garden Do not desjjair, for I think it will end well yet. 



Thrilling Correspondence. 329 

' Oh, breathe not those accents, though distance divide us. 
Though time has been lavish A\dth sorrow and years, 
Thou art dear to me still — the ijast cannot chide us. 
When we turn and look back through a \dsta of tears. 

Ah, yes! thou art dear, though the sunshine has faded 
From off my yond forehead, while shadows of care. 
Like the twilight of evening, my pathway has shaded, 
And left, now and then, silver threads in my hair. 

Speak not of indifference, while there yet linger, 
The hopes and the dreams of my earliest hours. 
"While memory points with her magical finger 
To pathways whose thorns are all hidden in flowers. 

How well I have loved thee may never be spoken, 

And now, even now, in my early decline. 

My hopes all dei^arted, the heart that loves thee 

Must ever be thine. ' Effie. " 

Y'^ Rare are solitary woes; 

Tliey love a train, they tread each other's heel." 

"Her tempted virtue unprotected left. 
Bobbed of assistance, of each friend bereft. " 

Friends wrote and urged tlie Governor in my behalf and 
informed him of the critical condition of my affairs, which was 
being taken advantage of by cowardly devils, to distress and 
ravage my home and family, and that I had no one to protect 
them. But there was no honesty in his heart, and he seemed 
to enjoy and gloat over such torture and miirder. Of course, 
he DID enjoy it, or he ivould not do if. " Since will to act and 
action was but one." And "there was a laughing devil in his 
sneer." Rather than let go, he would cut out the tongues of 
his victims so as to escape their dying curses.] 

"Home, May 22d, 1881. 
My Dear Husband : — [She is being robbed of between three and 
four thoiisand dollars by one devil alone, backed by the gang; is being 
got into a stress; is gloomy, discouraged, distressed and embarrassed, so 
that ruination was surely evident if I was not speedily released, as there 
was no one else to avert it, and which I frankly and jjlaintively jDlead to 
the Governor; these letters to the Governor are too plaintive, entreating 
and meek for me to ever repeat. And yet his conduct was so malignant 
and brutal, that it flamed and maddened my wife's brain, tore her heart 
into shreds, filled her with the very frenzy of despair, drove her insane 
and cast her down, so that she was ruined and never herself anymoi'e.l 



330 Struggling for Liberty. 

' I know not -wliat shall befall me, 
God hangs a mist o'er my eyes; 
And each step in my onward path 
He makes new scenes to rise; 
And every joy he sends to me 
Comes as a sweet sui'prise. 

I see not a step before me, 

As I tread on another year; 

But the past is still in God's keeping, 

The future his mercy shall clear; 

And what looks dark in the distance, 

May brighten as I draw near. 

For, perhajis, the dreaded future 
Has less bitter than I think; 
The Lord may sweeten the waters 
Before I stoop to drink. 
Or, if Marrah must be Marrah, 
He Avill stand beside its brink. 

It may be he has waiting 
For the coming of my feet 
Some gift, of such rare value. 
Some joy, so strangely sweet. 
That my lips shall only tremble 
With the thanks they cannot speak. 

Oh, restful, blissful ignorance, 
'Tis blessed not to know; 
It keeps me still in those arms, 
Which will not let me go; 
And hiishes my soul to rest 
In the bosom that loves me so. 

So I go on — not knowing, 

I Avould not, if I might, 

Bather walking Anth God in the dark, 

Than going alone in the light; 

Bather walking with him by faith, 

Than walking alone by sight. 

My heart shrinks back from trials 

Which the future may disclose; 

Yet I never had a sorrow, 

But what the dear Lord knows. 

So I send the coming tears back 

With the whispered word ' He knows. ' 

Effie." 



Thrilling Correspondence. 331 

Law of Moses. — "If any Judge takes bribes, his punishment is death; 
he that overlooks one that offers him a i^etition, and this when he is able 
to release him, he is a guilty person." 

"■^Strike, if you rrill, but hear." 
"The smallest worm ^nll turn, being trodden on." 

"Home, October 18th, 1881. 

Oh ! My Deak Husband :— [What 

transpired and was wiitten within this space of time, and beyond, is too 
distressing, distracted, miserable, tender and domestic, to note here, or 
for the profane and cold to comprehend or regard, and enough cruel an- 
guish has already been given, and is otherwise known, for such to gloat 
over. She is being governed by the force of cruel distress, and is thus 
distrained in the ruinous crash, as to which I cannot write any more, for 
no language or pen can express it, and to only think of it is maddening. 

" Oh, pant not thus, for his poor heart to bleed." 

"Oh, Virtue ! I have worshipjied thee as a God; but thou art the 
slave of depra\dty." That is incai^able of a sensation of pity. 
She closes as follows :] 

I WILL KEIIEMBER YOtT, LOVE, IN MY PKAYERS. 

"When the curtains of night are pinned back by the stars, 

And the beautiful moon leaps the skies. 

And the dew drops of Heaven are kissing the rose, 

It is then that my memory flies, 

As if on the brings of some beautiful dove, 

In haste Tsith the message it bears, 

To bring you a kiss of affection and say, 

' I remember you, love, in my prayers.' 

Go where you will, on land, or on sea, 

I'll share all youi" sorrow and cares ; 

And at night, when I kneel by my bedside to pray, 

I'll remember you, love, in my prayers. 

I have loved you too fondly to ever forget 

The love you have whispered to me, 

And the kiss of affection, still warm on my lips, 

Since you told me how true you would be, 

I know not if fortune be fickle or friend, 

Or if time on your memory wears ; 

I know that I love you wherever you roam, 

And remember your love in my prayers. 

When heavenly angels are guarding the good, 

As God has ordained them to do, 

In answer to prayers I have offered to Him, 



332 Struggling for Liberty. 

I know tliere is one watching you ; 

And may its briglit spirit be mtli yoii tliroixgli life, 

And guide you up Heaven's bright stairs, 

To meet with the one who has loved you so true. 

And remembered you, love, in her prayers. Effie." 

" Oh, Mercedes ! I have uttered your name with the sigh 
of melancholy, with the groan of sorrow, with the last effort of 
despair. I have uttered it when frozen with cold, crouched on 
the straw in my dungeon ; I have uttered it, consumed with 
heat, rolling on the stone floor of my prison .... I wept, I 
cursed — Atonte Cristo. 

In the fall of 1881 the legislature convened, and a commit- 
tee of it and the Governor visited the bastile. And while I was 
pleading my case to the committee, the Governor interrupted, 
telling me that " all Hacked in getting out was the Judge," so I 
subsided as he did not ivant my case to he hiotvn. But the Judge 
had refused to recommend or otherwise favor others, and stated 
that he would not solicit any one's pardon, " as that was the 
Governor's province to use, independent of the Judge." Still 
as he had charged the jury in my case that the fight " was more 
like a duel than anything else" — which meant that it did not 
exceed manslaughter— and always maintained that I ought not 
to have got more than five years, and that he . would not oppose 
my pardon at any time before, and this while not knowing but a 
part of my case, I therefore felt that when he should become 
more fully informed, he would fill the bill, and I would go. 
For " Hope springs eternal in the human breast, man never is 
but always to be blest." 

A friend who was clerk of the court at my farce of a trial, 
and who was now chief-clerk of the assembly, wrote me from 
Olympia that nearly all of the members of the legislature would 
sign a petition for my release. And that he had also "ex- 
plained my case to the Governor, but he declined to interfere 
with " the judgment of the court," but added that he " thought 
after five years of imprisonment I would be pardoned." 

So it was " the Judgment of the court," was it ? 

But the " Judgment of the court " did not bother him as to 
other men he had pardoned. 

In the midst of his cruelty and the shrieks of agony, he 



Thrilling Correspondence. 333 

has the gall to express sympathy (?) — praises the Judge, and 
virtually confesses that he has not yet " even considered my 
case." — Here it is. 

( " Territoky of Washington, 
( Executive DEPAitTMENT. 

OiiYMPiA, W. T., January 25tli, 1882. 

I have your letter respecting your unfortunate brother, 

Mr. France, and I assure you that you have my sympathy, so also his 
family, and if I could with in-opi-iety indulge my jjersonal feelings I would 
give him his liberty. He had a fair and unprejudiced trial by a good 
Judge, and found guilty of the crime for which he suffers, and sufficient 
time has not yet elapsed to consider pardon. 

There are many in the prison for the same crime, and all about equal- 
ly deserving, so that I cannot well select one. I am son-y for you and his 
family; ^rith respect I am yoiu's, Wm. A. [Links.] " 

This letter is a fair sample of the rot given by ring officials 
to outsiders. If the prisoners were " all about equally deserv- 
ing" with me, would a man of any sense of justice or humanity 
hold ANY of them ? So he confesses to more than I have here- 
tofore stated as to the innocence of so many. And he did make 
selections, and I have be/ore noted their character. And he says I 
" had a fair and unprejudiced trial ! " "When even a juryman 
afterwards stated that a majority of the jury were fixed against 
me, and another one stated that he afterwards found that 
I had committed no crime, unless it was in " not killing the 
devil before he did." 

I had written to the " good Judge " asKing his assistance, 
and proposed to have him fully convinced of my entire inno- 
cence, if he would but name the point or phase as to which he 
thought me guilty. But he was determined not to be compelled 
to admit that I had been entirely shanghaied in his court. So 
he would never give me any such opportunity to do so. He 
would ignore my questions and propositions as to the same as 
follows : 

" Walla WAiiLA, Wash. Ter., January, 1882. 
Mii. George W. France : — I have received two letters from you, and 
I am sorry for you and symijathize with you, as I do with almost every 
man who is unfortunate, whether in prison or out of it. /did not convict 
you, it was twelve of your countrymen, who no doubt knew you better 
than I. 



334 Struggling for Liberty. 

I gave you the shortest sentence the law would allow. If I could 
have made it five (5) years instead of ten, I should have done so, under 
all the circumstances, as I told some of your friends who came to me with 
a petition in your behalf, that I thought your crime only deserved five 
years imprisonment. 

You seem to forget that a Judge has any duties obligatory upon his 
conscience. Not a month passes biit some one is asking me to recommend 
a pardon for somebody. Juries convict, the Judge sentences, and the 
Governor can i:)ardon if he see fit. That is his province, not mine. I 
shall not oppose your pardon, and shall see that no advantage is taken of 
you in my court, if I am apjarised of any attemjjt to do so. 

This is all I can promise you, and all I think you can reasonably ask. 
Respectfully youi-s, S. C. Wingakd. " 

He did prevent any further advantage being taken of me 
in his court, as was attempted on account of my duress, and 
showed plainly that if a Judge is so minded, he can see that no 
7nan is robbed in his court, though he employ no laivyer and is him- 
self absent. The whole horde of blackleg lawyers should be 
squelched ; any Judge that requires a litigant to employ or 
trust one, is a thief at heart. But this court had been used as 
a tool against me and mine by the gang to such an extent that 
it was not necessary in finishing up the job, if the Governor 
would hold me ; and he would. 

So the real judgement of the " good court," that the Gov- 
ernor held to be infallible as to me, was a sentence of five years. 
And the sentence of ten years loas therefore A mere technicality, 
that none but tyrants would make use of to torture, ravage and 
destroy. 

More of his Excellency's rot to friends in the States. 

"Tekritoky of Washington. — Executive Department. 

Olympia, W. T., March 20th, 1882. 

The letter is very satisfactory. I have no doubt of his good character 
up to the time of the crime for which he suffers. I hope in time to be able 
to do something for him. 

Tlie 2)eople here make great clamor over pardoning. 

I am yours truly, W. A. [Links.]" 

When the people where I lived and my case was best 
known were almost unanimous for my restoration, and had so 
petitioned for years, and many of them also plead for it ; and, 
moreover, when the Governor had so often declared that "no 



Thrilling Correspondence. 335 

0)ie opposes your pardon" who then were the " people " tolio 
tvould " clamor" against it, outside of the gang ? 

Say ! who were they ? 

I had an occasion to protest to tlie Governor the unreason- 
ableness of requiring the Judge's recommendation, when he 
knew he had made it a rule not to recommend anybody. 
" Well," he said, " your case has not been fully or formally made 
out or presented to me." Intimating, I took it, that I should 
employ a high priced agent, or linked middleman, or lobb^dst, 
to present my case to him iu a more inviling manner ; for still 
I could not get Mm to name "a point or phase as to lohich he ivanted 
more light." And I had relatives and other friends, who were 
likewise pleading for my release ; some of whom did so as re- 
presentatives of a whole community of tax payers. But neither 
did his excellency ivant any information from any of these. He 
treated the judgement, will, and the sober second thought of 
the people with contempt — frequently not even, making any 
answer to their true representatives ; they did not produce to 
him any mystic sign! 

I had now been meekly pleading and begging for about 
three years and had not succeeded in getting even a respectful 
hearing or an honest reply; nor had any of my friends. 

I was therefore determined, if possible, that the Governor 
should fully know my case in spite of himself, and to let the 
people judge, whether or not " it was fully and formally made 
out and presented," and also whether it was truly done. 

Therefore I wrote the following epitome of my case and 
trouble, and had a copy of it delivered to the Governor at 
Olympia and endeavored to have it published to the people. 

But the Governor and Co. would not allow the people to 
thus fully understand my case and condition, so they squelched it 
from, the 2xo2)le. 

"And A\dth necessity, the tyrants plea, 
Excused his devilish deeds." 

"No engine so sure as the means we employ, 
To ridicule first what we hope to destroy." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Prison experience, continued. — An epitome of my life, case and trouble to 
"the Governor and the peoi^le." — TJie only arguimiU and summing uj) 
of my case that was ever made. — The frank but fruitless ■vvaUfor justice 
and humanity by a victim shanghaied, ravaged, and languishing in 
Ijrisou. — " Let thy keen glance his life search through, and bring his 
actions in re\dew, for actions speak the man." — " While love and peace 
and social joy were there. Oh, peace ! oh, social joy ! Oh, heaven- 
born love ! Were these your haunts Avhere murderous demons rove ? 
Distinction neat and nice, which lie between the poison'd chaUce and 
the stab unseen." 

"Seatco Pkison, Washington Terkitoey, April 20th, 1882, 
To his Excellency, Governor [Links], and to my countrymen at large 
— especially in my own section : — 

As to "my case not being fully or formally made out or jDre- 
sented " at this stage, please consider that neither I nor my friends 
are lawyers, but that we have feeUngs, and thought we had sense 
and character enough to make so simple a case as mine manifest to 
any one disposed to "embrace the truth wherever found." And 
that this is all that would be necessary at this stage. And now my duress 
has been so prolonged, that I am destitute of means necessary to emj^loy 
experts to make out a formal case and plea — as at a contested, technical 
trial. From comfortable circumstances — a comj)etency — I have been re- 
duced to want and distress — sore and cruel. But your Excellency, in a 
homely, awkward Avay, we thought it had been shown and is maintained by 
evidence given before, and by and wit/i other facts proclaimed and un- 
questioned: 

First. — That I was always truthfully, peacefully, charitably and 
frankly disposed, to a fault, and temperate in all things ; that I never 
struck a child, harmed a kitten, killed a dog, or stoned a bird ; or op- 
jjressed anyone because he was unfortunate, in trouble, ignorant or jjoor ; 
nor en\-ied any one his own. And would ever stand for a fundamental 
truth — though I stood alone and then fell. Nor yet afraid to confess my 
many errors, wrongs, or sins to men. 

But that these traits are more of an endowment than any fault of 
mine, and if their fruits be considered as e\'il, I pray that they be no 
longer charged against me. 

Second. — That without molesting anyone, and by honorable toil, I 
made on the outer border of settlement a spacious and a hai)i)y home of 
high prosjiective value, and was j^ossessed of plenty to the envy of others. 

That I possessed all of the moral, legal, technical and customary titles 
and rights to be had, to each and every portion of the same. 

(336) 



Only Argument of my Case ever Made. 337 

That it was by hardships, privations, and good conduct — taking in the 
flower of niY life — that I won these, and that I had every right to inhal)it, 
cultivate and enjoy these, my own, and to defend my Ufe whOe jserform- 
ing such homage. 

Third. — That a transient few there were who determined to possess 
my property, and these — forming a chque — waged on me and have caused, 
with their friends or supj)oi*ters, aU the trouble and loss I have sufiered, 
and while I was i)ursuing the even course set forth. Yet, they mostly were 
friendly to my face when we met, had received favors at my hands, 
and cannot maintain that I ever wronged any one of them. 

Fourth. — That one of these would contest the possession of a jiai-t of 
my home with his rifle, and without having any legal, moral, or customaiy 
right thereto whatsoever — had not even instituted or filed any contest, and 
I had it enclosed with over ten thousand raUs. 

That he declared he woidd cultivate and hold this — my field and 
plowing — and that if I " attempted to do so he would kill me." That he 
swaggered to me and to various others, from the outset to the fight — as 
sworn to by men and women (the latter strangers to me). That he " had 
more backbone than me, did not believe that I was on the shoot, but if I 
was it was just his hand ; " that he " Avould, by the nape of the neck, piteh 
me out of the field, and if not man enough without, would fix me so he 
could." That " one or the other of us would die there." That he " would 
or I must go or come into the field a shooting," etc., etc., etc., and jn-o- 
claimed Macbeth's judgment, "Damned be he who first ci-ies hold, 
enough ! " 

Yet, your Excellency, he had good traits -withal; we frequently had 
friendly chats, and he sometimes sat at my table. And I don't beheve he 
would have tortured me so — ^during all these troublous, hapless, endless 
years of agony and despair, and while I was crying enough ! enough ! 
enough ! He would at least meet me in an ojjen field, give me a warning 
and a pai-tial show, and end my nuseiy. Will not your Excellency do as 
much ? Do not dissect me so with the executive function of mercy, whUe 
yet ahve and in my mind — just because I am ignorant, awkward, in trouble 
and poor ; give me some kind of a trial, and show wherein I can defend my- 
self against the inconsiderate and most unusual verdict against me. 

Fifth. — That neighbors warned me to be aware, or Mr. Jumjjcr would 
carry out his many threats against my Hfe, and urged me to accej^t the 
loan of a little pistol to carry for my defence when I went to the woods, 
where I was hkely to meet him, and in my field. I did so and kejjt on in 
my usual course. That the neighbor, who loaned me his pistol, Avas inti- 
mate with Mr. Jumjier, knew his intention to kill me, and Avas therefore 
afraid for his horses even, to be in this field, least they should be shot by ac- 
cident Avhen I should go into it. All of which he and others swore to. 
Reference : his Honor or clerk of my District court, and the Avitnesses them- 
selves. 

22 



338 An Epitome of Fiery Struggles. 

Sixth. — That but two men could be found during a period of over 
nine (9) months, who would swear that I had ever threatened Mr. Jumper 
with violence, and one of these had enmity against me, because I hael re- 
fused him a favor — as not believing him honest — and, moreover, the inci- 
dent referred to w^as long anterior to the fight. The other swore, I said 
" such men ought to be hung." The former was false, the latter true. 
(The former is the only neighbor, I beheve, within two or three miles not 
on my j^etition — if he can be considered a neighbor. ) [On my return I 
said to an old neighbor, "don't half the people consider him a perjured 
scoundrel ? " "I guess all of them do," said he.] 

Seventh. — That finally I apphed to a peace officer and preacher of the 
word, to bind the gentleman over to keej) the peace, so he would not mur- 
der me, and got in reply, that "he was indeed a vicious and dangerous 
man, but that it was simply envy — on account of my prosperity — that 
caused these plundering raids, and that all things considered, his advice 
to me, was to he prepared to defend myself, and go on about my business, to 
sow and cultivate this field." I simply did so, as usual in my even course. 
— Reference, his Honor. 

Eighth. — That the following day — in company with two other men 
(who were mutual friends as to Jumj)er and me — and who were not armed) 
while peacef uEy at work, sowing wheat on horseback, in my usual way, on 
said i?ortion of my home : That the gentleman, as aforesaid, having averred 
he would kill me at such time, place and circumstance, seeing us from a 
distance, proceeded at oncedii'ect for his silencer carbine, saying (at least), 
" there is going to be trouble," [and that " 7/je uiould kill me,''] came dii'ect 
into my field, Avith his gun cocked, and presently came to me and made a 
swaggering, fierce, frightful attack, "jDlaced his cocked gun to his 
shoulder," his finger on the trigger; said, " / will kill you," '^ fired the first 
shot," " killed a horse close by my side," under a man, who, " reaching back 
struck the muzzle down the instant it fired." That my pistol shots quickly 
followed this of the carbine," and were all fired in rapid succession." That 
these points and words as given of the attack and fight and position, were, 
and are always agreed by, and were sworn to by all present at the shooting 
who were sworn — three men — except that the man by me was so dazed, 
that he did not see or hear my latter shots. And the rapidity of all the 
shots was also declared and sworn to by others who were at a distance. 
Beference, his Honor or clerk, District court and witnesses themselves. 

Ninth. — That when my companion "struck down the gun with his 
hand, he clung to it, was struck on or against his head with the butt, 
dazed, jerked off his sinking horse, and a frantic struggle followed for 
control of the gun." 

That "neither said companion nor any other man had a hand or a fin- 
ger on to Jumper at any time," but " only hung on or clung to the gun." 

That said companion&i one time " during the straggle, Avas flat down," 
and one hand was torn quite to the bone. These points and language 



Only Argument op my Case ever Made. 339 

•uere and are also establislied and maintained as aforesaid. Same refer- 
ence. 

Tenth. — That diu*ing the struggle for control of the gun and life they 
(Jumper and said near companion) were in most all positions ; that it is 
disjjuted whether Jumper was entirely down at any time, and I don't be- 
lieve that anybody really knows, beyond a doubt, certain, on account of 
the confusion and excitement of men and horses in the way, but all pres- 
ent agreed that my companion was down ; he swore to it, and he was cov- 
ered with dii't and bruised, and was jerked hy the gun ten to fifteen yards 
over the ground — Jumper's way — in one position or another, when my other 
companion (from about fifteen yards away) possessed courage, by my cries 
for hel}?, to approach and grasp the again cocked carbine, and was — after a 
parley — given possession of it by Jumjier "as a friend," when all \dolence 
ended, and we travelled our separate ways. 

These points were not disputed — except as to the one as aforesaid — 
but I submit that the other points prove, that Jumper could not have 
been down very much, and not at all UNTrL after the shooting was done. 
And, moreover, that he was active, strong and dangerous to the eyid of the 
struggle. 

And what ! I ask in reason — or instinct even — would he evidently have 
done had he less than four pistol balls into him ? Was he not evidently, 
indeed, trying to kill me all this time ? or was it his unarmed friends he 
was after ? or who ? or what ? And is a cocked carbitie, in such hands and 
power, and declared and acted intent enticing ? or is it frightful all such 
time to one it is meant for ? 

Was I not, therefore, naturally and reasonably in fear of my Hfe 
during Aiiii of such time ? 

Eleventh. — That even after I was done shooting, I was "perfectly 
wild " with fear, and cried out to witness ("the friend") to "/or God's 
sake help us." 

And in reason I submit, if such an attack would not frighten almost 
a cast-iron man ? If not, tchat toould? 

That this proves that I was still in fear of my life, and therefore didnot 
shoot as often or long as in law one is justified in shooting in self-defense in 
such a case and under such circumstances. Reference, o»y standard appropri- 
ate law and most universal precedent. And as to which, permit me to but re- 
peat the words afterwards averred and yet maintained by an aged Di-sane, 
of excellent repute, who knew us both, and the ground, and the fight. 
That, " were he in my place, he would be shooting yet." And by one of 
the party present — who is now a justice of the peace — and which was 
sworn to by others as well, that ' ' he (I) should have shot him foi'ty times 
instead of four." 

Twelfth. — That, after the fight, this — now officer of peace and justice 
— declared to me and to others, that this carbine shot ' 'was aimed at France's 



340 An Epitome of Fiery Struggles. 

(my) heart, and his striking down the gun saved his (my) life " — which is 
true. 

That (Mr. Jumper not appearing much hurt) he (L . . ) and I swore out 
a warrant for his arrest (and two men — not us — were empowered to make it, 
and in which he swoke that said shot was aimed at me, and he so declared 
at various times, to various i)ersons,/'or some nine months thereafter, as did 
the other witness also, as proven by documents heretofore submitted as to 
each and the same, and which is, moreover, evident by all the physical, 
inherent and circumstantial proof hedinng on the same, and which I think I 
can say was not disputed, and was certainly never refuted. 

Thirteenth. — That when death, however, had resulted, I proceeded to 
the justice and requested an examination, expecting, of course, an honor- 
able acquittal. But the before noted cHque came to a hving man — this 
being their opportunity — sent for a shark lawyer to work in the tricks of 
the trade, made him also clerk of the court, delayed proceedings (without 
notice to me) till running it past the middle of the night, and swore, or 
courted " evidence " (?) of things so physically impossible and morally im- 
probable and untrue — on account of distance and the physiology of man 
— and conflicting ivithal, and which measurement and a little reasoning 
would pick to pieces, break in flinders, and make plain to even a child ; 
that, therefore, on account of the [masonic] indignity of the honorable 
court, I was not sworn at all, nor was anyone who was present at the 
shooting, or nearer than — according to their own guess — from 70 to 140 
yards, and which distance I will further on refer to more fully. 

That Jumper was not sworn, with plenty of opportunity, time and 
vigilance, and that the others who were really the only living persons who 
were p)rese7it at the shooting and could knoio the fight, were — with one of 
their own who wanted to tell the truth — unjustly and perniciously cast off 
\710t allowed to testify] . 

And this is the mould, by which they would cast pubHc opinion, and 
from it they did cast me into prison thirty miles away, and reports that I 
had "murdered" the gentleman. And then, moreover, cast my indict- 
ment from this mould alone. [No one who was at the shooting was 

ALLOWED TO TESTIFY BEFORE THE GRAND JUKY.] BefcreUCe, his HoUOr of 

the justice court and others. 

On account of my ignorance of men, and my duress — thus caused — ^I 
failed to get this court on the stand at my " trial " ('?), biit as it jaresently 
petitioned for executive clemency, I will presume it thought this would do 
as well, which sadly displays a lack of knowledge as to the effect of prayer 
on the human [/v/ human] heart. 

Fourteenth. — That a sample of the material or stuff, composing this 
mould — from which were cast the forms of commitment, indictment and 
verdict — by which to oppress and rob me in the name of the people, law 
and of justice, is found of these distance witnesses, wherein is named — as 
numbered — the little bullets, as belonging to my respective discharges, as by 



Only Argument op my Case ever Made. 341 

numbers from one (1) to four, each to each respectively ! with men or horses 
intervening, and the shots fired in rapid succession in a furious fight, and 
■when, moreover, two of us who were present did not know they hit at all ! 

And again, in swearing to words, as urging me to greater action, when 
by locution and time — marked by themselves — the distinction of words was 
beyond the reach of human hearing, as far and certain as to see the little 
bullets hit was of human vision. And as though there was any time or 
impulse for talk in the dash of the frightful life and death conflict. 

And thus can all that was sworn against me be refuted — even by its 
own — if considered A^th a passive mind, and be governed with reason, and 
the same standard accorded others in similar cases. 

When thus shanghaied, I foohshly declared that I "would not care a 
stiver for a ton of such stuff. " But I thought that reason and justice would 
next prevail if I employed experts to defend me, [but, fatal to me, they 
were seci-et brethren themselves] . 

Fifteenth. — That his Honor of the District court being presently made 
known of the fraudulent manner in which I was held in duress, kindly 
sent me word that he "would issue a writ and give me an examination — 
(which by law and usage I was entitled to) either at Dayton or Walla 
Walla, as I chose." But never having been in court troubles before, I 
meanwhile, hastily and ignorantly, was persuaded to trust, what proved to 
be my all to others [shysters], and, therefore, I did not get any examina- 
tion, hearing, or trial, for over nine (9) months. And then I did not in 
the usual sense and meaning of those words, and thus have I not, at an 1/ 
time during my trouble, had a fail* show, or deal, or hearing, or justice, in 
any court or by the public. And which I swear to be true, and -will 
further point it out, so that any one who may read this showing may know 
it also. But that, however, the chief points which I have given, besides 
others I will give, have been established beyond reasonable disjaute, as be- 
fore shown, and none of them could, or can ever be refuted when the phy- 
sical and inherent evidence and undisputed circumstances bearing on the 
same are duly considered mthal, and in but a few of these points it can 
readily be seen evident, that there could not and can not be any real case at all 
against m,e. 

That the only j)lausible theory set forth, and point formally made for 
my conviction at my "trial" (?) is by a preiionderance of personal evi- 
dence alone, in diverting the aim of the murderous carbine from " ?n(/ 
heart" to the life of another, with whom Mr. JumjDer was on fnendly 
terms, with whom he had no quarrel, against whom he had made never a 
threat, and to whom he had but recently presented a token of regard, and 
who was unarmed. On which account he was with me there, he thinking 
he could therefore persuade Jumper from his declared intent to kill me on 
this particular occasion, and they did respectively tiy to do so. 

But with my proven state of fear of danger, alone. How ! by what 
law ! or precedent ! or standard ! ca7i such point be held against me ? 



342 An Epitome op Fiery Struggles. 

}]lio is to be the Judge, as to such dangei-, u'hen the bffect is estublished? 
Suppose the guu was not loaded (even the magazine was filled for 
the i)urpose) or that it was a wooden guu, or that he was only shooting at 
my hat, or my horse, or at "nothing " (?), but a mutual, unarmed friend and 
peacemaker' ! Or that he was only in sport to see me run ! 

That it does not — in even justice and law — make any difierenee what 
any one else might think — or claim to think — just so that / was impressed 
with danger. And was there ever a being, cast in humau shape, who would 
not be so impressed under the force, and in the current of such an attack '? 

That, moreover, if such point had been reasonably [and without cor- 
ruiition] established: That it is a narrow and uneven cause to work all the 
oppression and torture and wreck that has been done. As to Avhich I beg 
to submit the judgment of a court in a State, where " good is not so fre- 
quently called evil, and e^dl good," where sharks and cutthroats cannot 
and do not ravage hard-earned homes and altars with impunity, in the 
guise of justice, and cause their victims to beg for life, and in vain. Ac- 
cording to the press, at Paterson, New Jersey, May 1st, 1880, Wilham 
Dalzell, his son being with him, shot and killed Josej^h Yan Houteu, who 
was one of a picnic party trespassing on Dalzell's laud. It did not ai)pear 
that the trespasser had any Aicioxis intention, motive, or imjiulse, or that he 
was armed. He Avas there only to have a good, social time, Avith his 
intended Avife, in a May party of his friends. Biit in going to the picnic 
grounds they i)ersisted in passing through Dalzell's field, Avho thereupon 
shot Yan Houten dead. 

Judge Dixon, in charging and laying doAvn the case to the grand jury 
— according to the press — said, in the folloAving Avords :. "If Dalzell tired 
the gun simply in protection of his property against trespassers, he is guilty 
of murder. But, if the trespassers assailed him and put his OAA-n or his 
sci«'.s life in danger, or caused iuthem/«?r of serious bodily injuri/, and 
the shf)t Avaa fired to prci^ent this, thou it Avould be excusable homicide, the 
act having been committed in self-defense." 

Dalzell was indicted for manslaughter and bailed out to attend to his 
business, and prepare for trial. And here follows the outcome in the Avords 
of the associated press : 

"William Dalzell, the infuriated farmer of Paterson, Ncav Jersey, Avho 
shot and killed Joseph Yan Houten last May, for (as one of a picnic party) 
invading his farm, and Avho came near being lynched at the time by the 
enraged companions of Van Houten, has jiist emerged from his trial Avith 
a verdict of ' not guilty. ' He succeeded in getting a jury of Bergen 
County fanners; as a chief point in the defense was that a man has a right 
to defend his property from trespassers, and on this i)oint the f ai-mers Avere 
a unit in Dalzell's favor. " 

NoAV supjiose Yan Houten had made an attack on Dalzell with a cocked 
carbine in both hands, and fired the first shot — after having declaredhe would kill 
him on thai very occasion; and that after nine months [dirty] Avork by the 



Only Argument of my Case ever Made. 343 

tricks of a [secret] clique of sharks, it was made to appear that Van Houten 
was "o«(y" trying to murder Dalzell's son. What do these sharks take 
the yeomanry and homebuilders of this country /or anyway ? It Avill thus 
be seen, that according to "Jersey Justice," were I having a fair deal and 
almost give the prosecution all they ever claimed as a whole — with the 
stuff sworn and vented — I would not have been held at all, or the first 
nail driven in my coffin. 

And I would respectfully submit, whether any man has succeeded iu 
making and holding a home — worth envying — in this coimtry, if it was not 
beHeved he would fight to defend it. And if it will be possible to do so, 
if the sharks are supported and backed by the power of Government, 
not disiJ^itiug the "infallibility of the courts," but as a matter of e.i:perieiice 
and fact in the hiatury of thu settling and habitation of this country. Will men 
work the best jjart of their lives in making and earning homes, if they can 
jump or wreck those ah-eady done with safety and security and even 
veneration ? 

As to which I would refer to the reports of the shotgun, rifle, joistol 
and strife throughout this country. 

That, had such "Jersey Justice" been proclaimed by Executive and 
courts, my trouble and also that of several others iu my section — since 
been made — would not hkely have occun-ed. Or had I been known as a 
vicious, reckless man, or as ha^ing such in my employ, as many do, I 
would not now be pleading for my life at your Excellency's feet. 

That Mr. Jumper had just previously undertaken to jump another 
man's claim, but being at the outset met in kind, he found it to be a 
stump he was jumping against, without shooting into it, so there was not 
much trouble there. 

That there Mas a man Hving with Jumi^er jirevious to and at the time 
of our fight; that he therefore reasonably knew more of his intention, 
manner and motive, than any other man. That he also closely followed 
Jumper into the field and witnessed the fight as closely anyway asthe prin- 
cipal prosecuting witness. That they subi^tenaed this witness and placed 
him on the stand at the so-called i^reliminary examination; that he was 
disjjosed to tell the truth as far as he knew; swore, he " did not know the 
number of pistol or carbine shots, as they were fired so near together and 
rai)idly, that it was a fierce, hot, mixed-ujD fight," etc. (I should say so, 
with bounding horses, men and fire,) " but, that there were more pistol than 
carbine shots," and that, on account of the distance, he could not recog- 
nize us as the men engaged, though dressed the same as at the fight. 
That their lawyer and clerk-of-lhe-court then quickly and abmi^tly drojjp- 
ed this comiianion and eye witness — blurting out that " another such wit- 
ness ii'ill throw us out rf court." (?) 

Whereujjon the sherifi" and others said to me that "lie would be my best 
witness." Certainly, he reasonably knew as mucli as either of the other 
two "distance" witnesses. Certainly, he would hold them level in their 



344 As Epitome of Fieky Struggles. 

future sicearing ; and it made liim mad (saying, "how, the hell, cotiLi) 
I tell in such confusimi and at such a distance,") when they insinuated 
that he ought to swear something, that would appear damaging to me, not- 
■v\-ithstanding the distance and nature of the fight, and it being so plain in 
my favor on its face and back and bottom, and which he did know. 

That, moreover, they also dropi3ed him out, when binding their other 
witnesses to appear at the District Court. And that, I being left in duress, 
remember, thus comijelling me to trust to others, I therefore utterly failed 
in securing him, and he disappeared before my tried (?). 

If I was getting a square deal (which, however, no one to my knowl- 
edge has had the hardihood to seriously declare), then why, oh why! was 
not such a witness secured, placed on the stand before both the Grand and 
Petit Juries, and told to tell, in his o^ra way, all that he did know about 
the tragedy, and everything apjjertaining thereto, befoke and aiter, and 
then LET Hnt telii it ? And then sift the wheat from the chaff, if any 
chaff there be. 

That any man who "nill not consider such sample circumstances as 
proof of a crooked deal and swindle, to be repudiated, should not com- 
plain if ever he be judged in kind. 

That the most sacred i^roperty and abode known to man or animals is 
that of home! That doubly sacred are these, when they be made, fashion- 
ed and won by one's own honorable and persistent toU ! That the most 
sacred law and impulse, and truth — of instinct, of God and of man — is that of 
defense of one's life, whUe worshipping on such an altar ! That no law of 
God, or of man, or of honor — decently meted out — requii-es one to run 
from such an altar, or siverve while engaged in such homage. 

Your Excellency! I propose to further notice, meet and embrace, in 
refutation, the most extreme points, stuff and tattle, ever set uji or insinu- 
ated against me as crime — morally or technically — at any stage of the 
trouble and as to every phase of the same, by considering them and it, as 
bunched together and as separated; and then showing four germane and 
fundamental points and principles, that they are established in my favor 
and recorded, and csin be again and again; and which must refute beyond 
reasonable and fair dispute all such viattei\ 

I think that most any one while engaged in earning and making a 
home should derive sense enough even from horses, calves, children and 
the Indians about him, to enable him to roughly portray a standard under 
which he can jierform his homage in safety from carbines, sharks and the 
function of mercy. But I can only do this in my own, simple, awkward, 
frank, homely way, and in stinging duress! 

First point or reason of the " four." 

That I had a moral and technical right to be there and on the hapless 
spot, which is my intention and purpose, my course in life — what was in 
my heart and bones. 

Second point and reason. 



Ont^t Argujeent of ivrr Case ever Made. 345 

That I had a moral and technical right, cause and reason — in common 
pnidence — to be armed, and have my pistol grasped in my hand for action 
immediately ijreceding my shooting; Ihis is my conduct, good or bad, wise 
or otherwise, as to the fight. 

Th ird point. 

The motive and impnlse causing action in the shooting. 

Fourth point. 

The state of fear, which is that of instinct, as I understand these 
things. 

Eighteenth. — That the principal prosecuting and officious witness was, 
as before showTi, too distant to reasonably or physically know much about 
the fight, or anything as to disputed points or matter, or more at least, 
than the witness whom they rejected, discarded and cast axoay; because they 
were together at the outset, and neither apj^roached to aid either of us (and 
on account of the brevity of the shooting dash, and the perplexity of 
motion and increased danger, such ajjproach woiild not increase their op- 
portunity of knowledge anyhow). And, moreover, as heretofore shoA\Ti, 
the "cast away " siKore it to be impossible to define the fight, on account of 
its fury and nature "a^ such a distance." And, moreover, no one testified, 
(or claimed that I know of) to seeing this princii^al, officious and linked 
witness during the fight. (The evidence of the "castaway" woidd, of course, 
have been valuable to me on this point also. ) And the first time any of us three 
saw anything of him — from a time before the fight — was, as we left the 
field immediately after it, at a place half a mile from the fatal spot; and 
then we met him coming from a different direction to us for to enquire as to 
the fight! Of one of us, further on ahead, this source of so much linked 
misinformation inquirec^.: '^ Are you shot? ''^ ^^ Is France shot? ''^ Etc., etc. 
And, moreover, the i^laces he had been and the words besides which he 
had spoken to others, ("that I was shot anyway,") and the long distance 
he had travelled, and time — with other jiroof to be had — would show that 
this witness run like a deer, on the first fire or before, and which showing of 
itself would have shattered the so-called case ( ?) of the prosecution from 
the outset — the commitment, indictment, and duress — had I belonged to a 
shark gang, instead of being but a jaeaceable tiller of the soil. 

In which case it was "not considered necessary or worth bothering 
with ; " notwithstanding I had paid a thousand dollars to have such imrk 
done, (all of which, had I not been traitorously held in duress, I could 
have done myself with less labor and skill than is required to plow twenty 
acres of groimd — a $30 job). And the " castaicay" swore that "he rim 
for some timber " to get away from the carbine, and his companion surely 
and evidently run for shelter also. And, moreover, if I would — as I Avill 
do in one place and another — show that this " distance" witness and the 
other distance one — who together constituted my commitment, indictment 
and duress, and the source of lying, jjerjui'ed misinformation — would mur- 
der me in my field, would this even be any help to a " haymaker," or must 



346 An Epitome of Fiery Struggles. 

such practice and malicious slander emanating therefrom, be varnished 
for all time -with my blood ? 

That I had just previous to the fight offended said officious and distance 
witness by refusing him a favor — a matter of several hundred dollars to him 
— and that we were not on friendly terms anyway, but that yet he was where 
he was (in the field) to get my answer as to said favor, and by ony special 
request. Now, was I such a lunatic as to place an enemy on the scene if I 
had intended, or had any intention, to " murder " his Hnked fiiend ? And, 
moreover, to offend him just before I intended to do it ? And, further- 
more yet, to at the same time ask him to go with me close to his linked 
friend, which would be to see me do it more plainly (which I will show that 
I did). If s®, then why was I not caressed and sent to an asylum adajDted 
to idiots, instead of shanghaiing me to hades for torture or executive 
charity ? 

That when Mr. Jumper first appeared in my field and was approaching 
one of my men who was at his work, that this witness exclaimed to me, 
" Th&re comes [Jumjyer] now with a gun! " that I answered, "Let us go out 
and see what he is going to do with it ! " that he answered me, saying, " / 
don't care a damn ! what he does with it ! " and did not accomj^any me, all of 
which he admitted on the stand to be true. Same reference as heretofore. 
And that presently, after following me and one of my comi^anions around 
(as we sowed wheat) and f aiHug to frighten, swagger and drive us out of 
the field — from my homage — with his cocked carbine in both hands, 
that the gentleman then gave it up and left us, to have a talk with said 
linked witness at the place I had left him. And as to which talk or 
conference, except that it was had, nothing transpii'ed — unless it be in the 
conduct that folio wed it. But had he been an unprejudiced and honest wit- 
ness, wovdd he not have tried to avert the attack of his friend? And had 
he done this would it not have so transpu'ed ? That then/ro??i tliis witness 
Mr. Jumjjer, enraged and thirsting for my blood, proceeds to my other 
companion (" his friend ") at work, asking him " as a friend " to "leave the 
field, frr there is going to be trouble/" that he then struck du-ect to me 
and my other comi3anion, close together and jieacefully at work on my 
altar, and belching o^^t a stream of furious, raging profanity, made his 
final attack, jumping ((gainst a stump tkat had not swaggered and which he 
had found would not quail, (the whole case in a single sentence). Which 
frightful disi^lay, from the outset to the fight, as well as the relative posi- 
tions — esi:)ecially that we two (Lay and I) were close together at work 
■when he made the final attack, as we had been all the time since I had 
gone to him at the onset, or first attack, was agreed and sworn to by all 
present who were sworn — three men. Same reference as before, and wit- 
nesses themselves. 

That my companions were veteran soldiers and brave men, and averred 
that they had never Avitnessed a more frightful, hideous, wicked attack by 
any man. Witnesses themselves and the evidence. 



Only Akgument of my Case ever Made. 347 

Had I reason and cause and right to grasp my pistol? 

And ■\\dtlial, wlien in close succession, " lie i^ut his cocked gun to his 
slioulder " (No. 1), "his finger on the trigger!" (No. 2), and I stared in 
the muzzle ! and " he said, I "wdll kill you ! " (No. 3), "and fii'ed " (No. 4), 
" the gun being struck down the same instant it fii-ed ! " (Point 5). 

Had I the right ? accorded to other men, to return the fire ? repel the 
attack ? shoot into the frightful, fatal danger ? And with all the rajjidity, 
impulse, force, steam and jiower, which he himself thus transmitted and 
fired into me ? 

That these five numbered points were always agreed and sworn to to 
the letter, by aU who were present at the shooting, who were sworn, three 
men, unquestioned as to reputed veracity. Same reference, and witnesses 
themselves. 

What ? Oh ! What ? am I and my friends — who know these sworn 
facts — taken for ? And am I being held in duress to justify and liide in 
my grave the brutal crimes of criminals ! or what '? Why ! am I thus 
butchered ? 

Nineteenth. — That there was but one other witness, besides the distance 
and prejudiced, offended and absent one before noted, who was not 
present at the shooting, who pretended to define the fight, or split hairs as 
to the same. And this other one was Jumper's partner, in the fullest 
sense of the word, and swore to being outside of the field when the shoot- 
ing commenced, and guessed at the distance to be " about seventy yards " 
at my " trial" (?) or " about half the distance of the other one." 

Now what minute part, in physical reason, coidd such witness define 
in truth, within the succeeding few seconds of the shooting dash, as to the 
same, and -with the fire, sound, men, horses, smoke and fury in the way ? 
How many Httle bullets or hairs could be seen, split, placed, and numbered 
(as "from 1 to 4") and exact positions of gun, men, and other things, 
comprehended ? And words understood and all fixed in the mind in the 
few seconds of such a shooting dash ? In such space of bewilderment of 
any one's brain, within range or reach of the fire and fury ? 

Great Heavens ! what faculty of vision ? of hearing ? of comprehen- 
sion ? Oh ! Avhat mighty powerful minds ! jjossessed by these two " dis- 
tance " witnesses ! to be engaged in such business too ! 

Even admitting the distance as no greater than they guessed it, and 
which, moreover, I do not do {one of tliem was running away). (But I am 
— as usual — working only on ground which I can readily hold, by any 
standard of law, of right, of reason, and precedent. And which is estab- 
lished beyond reasonable and fair dispute, and I suppose recorded. And 
wherein the Avitnesses themselves can be readily referred to. ) 

So, therefore, must not, in law, justice, trath, decent dealing and 
humanity, the evidence of those ^cho ivere present at the shooting, be the 
evidence, as to things physically imjjossiblefor others to Jcnow ? Just so far as 
does not conflict with natural reason, inherent proof, or other circum- 



348 An Epitome of Fiery Struggles. 

stances, or materially with themselves ? And most certainly so when two 
of the three of these present -witnesses Avere but mutual friends and peace- 
makers (I being the third) and theii- general or reputed veracity unques- 
tioned. 

And when neither of the other two ''cared a damn! what he did with 
Jiis ^nn," made never an effort to avert the confhct, but so he parted from 
each of them unhindered and thirsting for my blood, were prejudiced, 
interested and officious. And swore positively to things impossible to 
inow, and to others estabhshed to be false beyond dispute. And who 
were afraid to meet and face on the stand the ^ritness they dropped out 
and cast away. And loho were impeached ivithal. 

Oh ! the desecration of that which should be venerated, and ever held 
the most sacred by all men ! Oh ! the stabbing of the most cherished 
and beautiful functions of our Government. Ai-e drunken sailors more 
basely, brazenly shanghaied ! and then held and tortured ? And from 
such a source of infoi'mation and influence ? 

Some good men hold that I should have suiTendered my homage at 
the previous attack, while others, just as good, maintain that I should 
have been jirepared in kind and repelled the attack, shot the danger, when 
it first api^eared. Yet, though I owned a shotgun, and there was also a 
navy revolver in my house and an improved rifle, belonging to a man — 
fond of hunting sport — in my employ ; yet the little jjistol was the only 
weapon taken or had by us, which fact was not disputed. 

If your Excellency please, it was always to me a sorry, sickening sjsort ( ?) 
to hunt down God's beautiful creatures, to see them suffer and qixiver and 
die ! How sorrowful then, indeed, must, in reason, be my feelings, as to 
the taking of human hfe. But men are few, who's hfe they would give 
that another might hve. And there are those who cherish and love their 
lives and wives and children — homes and homage — and the beautifiil 
wherever found ; and possess in the vigor of manhood certain sparks in 
moral sentiment which can be made to glow, and which they would not 
desecrate or smother, though they die ! 

Had I sui'rendered at the previous attack, my surrender would have 
been demanded again and again ; as was afterwards done, as this plea is 
witness. Had I run from the final attack, I would hkely have been shot 
in the back, or called on to run again — ^but not Kkely more than once 
more. 

It was confident surrender that worked my downfall and put me in 
this most hon-ible gi-ave. That the peace officer, who decHned my appli- 
cation to guard my life by the courts at public expense, only administered 
an unlettered law of public sentiment — in which my lot was cast — which 
is " That one who will not defend himself is unworthy to be defended," 
and which history of such proceedings ihere wiU maintain as to sentiment 
and actions. 

Eeally, your Excellency, the main force of the prosecution was not 



Only Augument of my Case ever Made. 349 

serious and gi-ave, but rather as A\-itli a snicker, in the -way of business and 
revenge. But yet they made many good but credulous men believe that 
they were honest and humane (?), and that I, who — though a farmer most 
of my life, and with all my hardness as to other things, had never killed 
even any domestic animal, except hogs, and though struggling with rugged 
fortune, had never struck, in anger, any man, woman, or child — that I 
Avas a murderer (?). Thus have they pierced me and pierced me deep — 
deeper than they knew — in the region where I hve, and where it hurts, as 
with many poisoned arrows, and cast me into a stigmatized horrible gi-ave 
near five hundred miles from where my children were born. Oh ! don't 
IDlay with these arrows now, it hurts so ! nor feai- to pull them out, or I 
had rather " "wdnged the shaft that quivered in liis heart ! " 

Twentieth. — Was Mr. Jumper down during the few seconds of the 
shooting dash ? If so, when ? how much ? and how did he get down ? 

He was inches over six feet tall, weighed over 200 jDOunds, and a 
boasted man of strength and activity. His antagonist (for control of the 
gun) weighed about 150 pounds by his word, but he was no sloiich either; 
he was active, strong, and brave, or I could not testify to it now. But he 
had a throat trouble, hui'ting him in over exertion, and that it troubled 
him very much in the sanguinary struggle. And now be it remembered 
that "the pistol shots followed that of the carbine," and "all fired in 
quick succession," (more properly, my first shot was fired with it, which 
explains the loudness of this, the second carbine shot). "That he (Jumper) 
jerked him (Lay) by the gun off of his sinking horse, struck him on or 
against the head with the butt of the gun and dazed him ; " and that he 
(Lay) icas doum." That " nobody had a hand or finger on Jumper at any 
time." That "he gained ten to fifteen yards in distance — his way over 
the gi-ound." That " he \vas active and strong to the end of the conflict." 
And but one of my shots were at all fatal, and no effect Avas manifested 
to — his then — antagonist by any or all four of my shots at aiii/ time diiring 
the conflict, and he aven-ed at the end of it that I ' ' had not hit him at 
all, " and bitterly and madly condemned me for not ' ' knocking him down and 
stamping his head deep in the ground, damn him .' " and afterwards declared 
that " he should have h&A foi'ty halls into him, instead of four ! " And 
this, mark you, from one who was before kindly disposed towards him, and 
trying to divert him from his death with never an angry word, nor did any 
one utter an angry word to him in the field. 

So, therefore, it must be evident that all, if any, of the " down " there 
was about it, was done by me shooting him down with as late as the last 
shot, or that together wdth the others. And this man, hanging on to the 
again cocked gun, or danger, swore that during tliis time he was so dazed 
that he did not see, hear, or know of my shots, or see me — all the powers 
of body and mind that he then had being riveted to the gun and danger. 

And there was no physical or circumstantial proof to show that he was 
down. Nor did any one who Avas near enough at this time to know Avho 



350 An Epito:\ie of Fiery Struggles. 

was sworn, claim to have seen me shoot him when he was down and at 
that stage of the fright and fury ! I do not believe that any one near 
enough lo know, could know hardly one man from the other, or just where 
he himself was, or what he was doing, for it was dangerous most anywhere 
around there then. If this be not reasonable, then why is it that scarcely 
ever does any two, or even a crowd of eye A\-itnesses agree exactly and hon- 
estly in describing any frightful fight done in their midst before theii' eyes ? 
And that the theory be about correct, that a man, when excited, is hke a 
horse to the extent that he cannot comijrehendbiit one object, or thought, at 
a time ? But, however, he thinks that he should know everything that had 
transpired within the view, and often imagines that he does, when perhaps 
he did not know anything. In a side view, if one's sight be sharply 
drawn to and fixed on a frightful man's finger, and "sees the finger 
placed on the trigger " of a gun to fire a murderous shot, I do not beheve 
that he can knoio certain, within a foot of where the muzzle of the gun 
is, or its exact aim, while his sight and mind is thus fixed and set on the 
trigger, and distinctly hears from the frights lijjs " / will kill you !" " and 
the gun fired and was struck down the instant he said it ! " 

But, if a man infroiit does not know where that muzzle is, he at least 
is impressed with the most burning, fearful, flaming, blazing imagination, 
that can be stamped on and in the brain of man, and will not then discuss 
or study about the matter before taking action ! Nor does the most artful 
double-dealing flawed law — concocted by sharks and applicable to the 
case, require that he shoidd. And I humbly confess that in some of my 
wakeful, suffering hours of night, I could make any mxtn gnaw the muzzle 
of a cocked carbine who would dispute that such a display must cause 
fear of life in the one expecting the shot, and in range of the aim ! Be- 
cause I beUeve he would do it, but to turn and snicker, which I would 
never do to even a cannibal, under such circumstances — for money, fear 
or fame. 

In the tame, cool assassination of Garfield, who was the man to in- 
stantly jump onto the tame assassin, to repel the attack; to gi-asp the dan- 
ger with his hands ! though standing all around him ? And were there 
any two of the numerous witnesses present who exactly agreed as to what 
transpired, or was in "\dew, for a time after the first shot was fired ? I think 
not. Mark, how they differed about his hat, etc. But what would have 
been the state of their minds, were it a. fierce shooiiug fight and struggle, 
with three bucking, bounding, strugghng horses mixed up with the rest ? 
Is it not evident, therefore, and anyway — to wise men or to fools — that had 
Jumper been shot any less, that he would have succeeded in killing me, if 
not others besides, who would have tried to stay him in his rage ? 

As to the first point of " the four : " 

Your Excellency, Did I have a moral and technical right to be there, 
and on the hapless spot ? This, the ijrosecution did not attempt to refute, 
for the official records near at hand would settle that ; if the very laws by 



Only Argument of my Case ever Made. 



wliicli I was being tried (?) were any autliority to go by, and as before said, 
there Avas never any contest instituted against me, and there Avas no ques- 
tion as to the hues. 

Second point of " the four : " 

Did I ! Did I ! have a moral and technical right, cause, and just 
reason, and in common prudence, to be armed to the extent I was, and to 
have my pistol grasped in my hand, immediately preceding my shots ? 
Nor was this disputed, nor was it asserted or claimed on "trial " (?) that I 
went to the field, or to the spot, with any evil in my heart. 

And how could that, in reason, be done, under all, or but a 2>art of the 
sample circumstances heretofore shown, germane to the same, and none of 
them were assailed, but they were squelched. They cut me very short in 
my testimony ; indeed, they tried to jjrevent me from testifying ai all, and 
asked me but two questions>, when they dropped me and vii'tuaDy said, " go 
off now and He doAvn like a good lamb. " (I was being tricked, shanghaied, 
and cast out of the way, which I will swear to be true, and can further 
show, if necessary), though they did not disjjute my being there, right on 
the spot, and on or about there during many years before. Nor did they 
question my reputed veracity or good name, though I invited them to do 
so by "every witness put on the stand, by either side, or anyone else, or 
that I was always a i^eaceable citizen." 

Tliird point of " the four : " 

It seems to me that it must be plain, that after Mr. Jumper had failed 
to swagger and frighten me out of the field, that when he returned to me 
again in that manner he plainly showed his certain intent to can-y out his 
declared and now manifested determinaiion to " shoot me out," and per- 
haps anyone else in his way to this end. But as he had just left un- 
harmed one of my men without threatening him, and addressed him " as 
a friend," and had been on more friendly terms with the other by me: 
Why should he, why would he kill him ? What would be the benefit or 
advantage to liim had they both left, or were dead, and I had remained ? 
Except it be to get rid of them as witnesses to more secui'ely murder me ! 
Could I not get other men, when I had two or three others in my employ 
all the season, and could and did I not work myself ? 

Did I not, therefore, hnow that he now knew that — though I might be 
easily flattered, imposed on, tricked, betrayed, sold, frightened and 
killed — that / would not be bullied or swaggered from my homage ? There- 
fore, in the mad, furious desperation of this final attack, must I not reason- 
ably, instinctively, necessarily and surely be in fear of my life? 

If not, what in the name of high Heaven would cause such fear ? If 
not, what then was the matter with me when I was bewildered, dazed, 
"perfectly -sWld " from the onset of the attack until after all violence 
ended, and at the time r//7«r the shooting, when I cried out, "for God's 
sake, help us ! " as both sentences were sworn to by even this friend of 
Jumper, and added that " «'e were all perfectly wild! " 



352 An Epitome of Fiery Struggles. 

Come now : If law and Justice is the standard, and by the evidence, 
what was the matter toith me ? Your Excellency, what was the cause and the 
motive of this state of fear ? Where did it come from ? Who hunted for 
it ? Who made and fired it ? Wlio drove it in ? 

Now then, with my pistol clasped in my hand and thus impressed, 
stamped, fixer), set with fatal fear, and tli us attacked ! What then is the most 
reasonable, rightful and instinctive motive, impulse, force, current and 
action to follow ? If not to shoot, to repel the attack, to fight the frightful, 
fatal danger ? Did I! Did I! Did I ! have a moral, legal, instinctive 
right to shoot the danger ? 

If not, why then should I have a pistol in my hand ? If not, why did 
he hunt and attack me with a loaded and cocked carbine in both hands, 
with blood in both eyes, in a fuiious rage, and having declared he would 
"kill me — " shoot me out of the field" — in this very way, time, and place ? 

In the light of all these estabHshed and tmquestioiied facts, was I not 
shanghaied ? Or what is the name for it ? Am I not being butchered, or 
what is it that a farmer can understand ? 

Fourth point of " the four " — the state of fear. 

Your Excellency, when one is thus — as is estabHshed I was — in a state 
of fatal fear, what is the most probable shortest space of time such state 
can be, that the force, jjower, current of such shooting impulse can exist, 
be spent, and the brain be impressed with an adverse or diverse thought 
so that different action can follow, transpire, by the force of reason ? 

To those who may not have given this subject due thought I would 
submit, that in such sanguinary attack and conflict, sound and fury, the 
brain and mind is naturally, necessarily, spontaneously and uncontrollably 
impressed, stamped, fixed, and spell-boimd with danger for a time or state. 
That during such state or spell, the reasoning function of the brain (the 
only accountable motive in man) is suspended or j^arahzed, and he is then, 
therefore, consequently and unavoidably simply a machine, in the power 
and control of an engineer, or distinct jjower [instinct) which is in-esponsi- 
ble to any man. 

That, therefoi-e, the acts that are done during the time of such state 
of fear or S2)ell, are the spontaneous, ungovernable acts of artless instinct, 
nature, and of God. 

That a person cannot cry and laugh at one and the same time ; that 
he cannot write with one hand intelHgently on a serious or dangerous sub- 
ject or event Avith much force of thought, and at the same time write -n-ith 
the other hand with force of thought on an opposite or a diverse subject, 
also, that when the mind is firmly set, fixed, or strained on any thought — 
as of apparent danger — such thought and impression cannot be suddenly 
dropped, removed, or rubbed out, sufficient for the brain to receive an- 
other or opposite, or a diverse impression, distinctly impressed or photo- 
graphed, so that it be jiossible for intelligent opposite or diverse acts to fol- 
low instantly ; that before such other diflferent acts can be displayed, an 



Only Argument of my Case ever Made. 353 

interval — a space of time — must and does therefore intervene, and that 
during such interval of time, the motive or reasoning power gets to work 
and works another, or photographs siich different impression on the then 
passive brain, oftei' which inteUigent and responsible acts are done, and 
not before or sooner can they be. That during such interval or inter- 
mediate space of time, a jjerson is necessai-ily in a state of bewilderment, 
perplexity, folly, and of instinct, it may be passive or intense, extreme or 
active, or dazed — according to the force of events transpiring or trans- 
mitted in the way — and which the force of instinct deals -with iu its own 
simple, artless, yet most effective way ; that this sjjace of time, from reason 
to reason and state of fear, in my case, as a matter of established fact as 
heretofore shown, did extend from the time Jixmper made his final attack 
and fired, until he was disarmed, or gave up his gun, or the rei^elhng of the at- 
tack was accompHshed. That, besides being established by personal evidence, 
the instinct of reason teaches that such time must be greater than the 
few seconds of the shooting dash. That, therefore, if I committed any crime 
it was in performing my homage and grasping my pistol. 

That no standard law (or any other I ever heard of) classes as murder 
ANY act or acts done in such a state. But that, however, in reason and 
fact I did not shoot as long as the fatal danger lasted, and that it was a 
most extremely narrow escape or miss from death that I had from first to 
last — from the onset untU the gun was surrendered. 

That none of such reasoning or discussion, as I have roughly cast, 
was allowed me at my " trial" (?) or to argue or sum up the case, or to 
use diagrams that were drawn for the occasion. But that to impeach the two 
prosecution witnesses, each as to some part of their evidence, and to es- 
tablish the words spoken by Jumper as he filled, was held to be sufficient ; 
which was done, besides the other evidence as before noted. The declar- 
ation, " I will kill you ! " was not disputed. 

That the e-sidence, or rather stuff, by which I had been held without 
bail or trial, or hearing, was, as before shown, of Jumper's partner [who 
was not even arrested] and the other prejudiced and interested mtness 
[who was not prosecuted either] who "didn't care a damn ! what he did 
with his gun," if, indeed, he did not tirge him on. And who both — as 
before also shown — were too distant to know as to disputable material 
points, or parts, or matter ; supposing anything could or should in reason 
and even justice and law be very material with the indisputable fact, that he 
was hunting me with a cocked carbine, and murder in his heart! 

The Grand Jury, as a whole, I beUeve, thought as / did, that my trial 
would follow immediately, and perhaps, therefore, did not summon a)iy 
one who was present at the shooting, and knew the fight, or who was un- 
prejudiced or honest, which criminal negligence doubtless secui'ed my in- 
dictment for murder anyway, and the succeeding six months of duress, 
and by which duress, most \'ile, only could my conviction be managed or 
accomphshed. Because the evidence to be had uji to this time against me, 
23 



354 An Epitome of Fiery Struggles. 

■was really either immaterial or else so tliin, false and rotten, tliat almost any 
clieap police court lawjer, or any farmer with ability enough to make and 
hold a comfortable livelihood out of the ground, could — w-ith measurement, 
a diagi-am, comparison with even its own as originally sworn, and a Httle 
reasoning — make plain and evident to even a child, and blow it away by 
any standard of reason, law, justice, or precedent, as per samj^les given. 
The preponderance of personal evidence to divert the aim of the gun from 
"my heart" to the man's life by my side, was managed, wrought and 
wrung out of duress, distress and fear, managed for the purpose by a prac- 
tice that would make even cannibals blush with shame, and for which the 
people were taxed and / held as criminally resj^onsible. And this, while I 
was held in vile duress and in a false light, without even a hearing, and 
begging for a trial ! A situation that will cause any one's average friends 
to stampede hke a band of sheeji when one of their number is attacked by 
a pack of wolves, and which was a part of the play and swindle ; and, 
furthermore, it was a surprising trick sprung on the stand. The proof of 
which can be discovered in various articles of this — the only argument, plea, 
and summing up of iny case ever made, and, of course, it could be done 
better. 

[To fix these witnesses, they were indicted for "premeditated andinali- 
cious murder, hearing which one of them ("Jumper's friend "), frightened 
with fear, cried out, ' 'Oh, my God ! I am as innocent as a child unborn, 
but they mil 7umg all of usf " Whereupon he was privately interviewed, 
a bargain struck, and he was tiirned out. But it required six months 
longer to fix the other.] 

The Jury was not chosen by lot and was illegal. And I was tricked 
{as any producer can he and is in danger of being by the hidden tricks of 
the trade) into an embarrassed duress and misplaced confidence in which 
I had no say as to its (the Jury's) construction, or any power against the 
traitorous tricks jjlayed on and off of the stand to my ruin. But yet part 
of the jurymen said, that had it not been for my last shot or two, nothing 
could have been made out of the jjoint, or any of the matter put against 
me anyway and voted the judgement they did, with the hojje and expecta- 
tion that the executive would abrogate it. And those of these who had 
not gone away did presently so petition, and the verdict included a recom- 
mendation to the court for mercy. 

But to consider duly withal the rapidity of the shots — that they were 
of the very same impulse — and the manifest danger all the time until after 
the shooting, and the state and impulse of fear and the natural inabiHty of 
witnesses to really know much in such danger and fury, was it not, indeed, 
at least an inconsiderate, a narrow and most imusual verdict; and was I 
and those of my fidends who did not stampede, unreasonable, or criminally 
unwary, when we trustingly believed that as soon as the circumstances 
and traitorous tricks that induced it were shown to the executive, "tt-ith a 
fair petition of the peace and home loving citizens of my section and ac- 



Only Argument of my Case ever Made. 355 

quaintance, that my restoration would be very presently granted. And 
■when others, who are guilty of a-hne, are so frequently restored in the 
verge of their sentences, ichy am. I thus discriminated against? And is it 
not, indeed, hard and oi)pressive and murderous to me in my sore and 
wiinging distresses and ill health ? 

That the producing class cannot support a grasping horde of sharks 
and homewreckers, have time left to keep posted in the ever changing 
tricks of their trade, keep the iJublic posted as to every job put up against 
them, and besides have time to make something for themselves or their 
children. That, therefore, it is unfair and grinding to deny recourse to 
one of these -s-ictims from their nefarious coil, and without proclamation of 
warning made before. That I never had any quarrel or trouble with my 
settled neighbors whatever, except with one, but with a few transient 
sharks or raiders, who required of me to buy my peace of them at ruinous 
prices and dishonor, till I had to run, deliver, fight, or die! 

And as only one in about fifty of the first settlers of the land have suc- 
ceeded in making, holding and enjoying comfortable homes thereon, per- 
haps I should have been guided by their experience and been satisfied to 
live in a tent. I know whereof I speak, only one in about fifty ! 

Oh, how brave and patriotic (?) for a [secret] clique of men to divert 
the powers of government, to wreck and devastate a well-earned and 
happy home! And take the life of a single, solitary, peaceable tiller of the 
soil, on the strength and sadness of the funeral of one who at least had 
the sand to undertake it alone. 

That I have implored your Excellency and his Honor, not to consider 
the dignity of state or functions of ofiice, or of jjersonal feelings too great, 
to point out to my understanding any case against m,e, or to show any re- 
futation of the points I have roughly taken, when all the circumstances 
are duly considered; or that these are not germane and rightly taken, or 
as to which, if any, need further proof, explanation or reference ? But 
have been granted nothing as to the same, except that I ' 'was convicted by 
a Jury of my countrymen." 

I have also, throughout, begged for executive mercy (though "the 
world does turn round"), and ever ready to confess to any guilt or sin, 
shown to my understanding, or to that of my near or proven friends, and 
to mend my ways or pursue others entirely different, if such rule be 
8ho^\'n to me by which I can hve better, in more jieace and less dishonor, 
which also have fallen on stony ground, leaving me in the dark and as 
one in a dream — having been pushed oil' of a high bridge, and though 
conscious of the fatal fall, yet powerless to combat or avert it, except by 
a hand in sight but withdra-svn or clinched. 

Anything as to my statements of my case, etc., that may be too con- 
cise and suggestive rather than complete and exhaustive, [and requiring 
a day or two to read it, as is the case when a member of a secret gang is 
tried,] and may, therefore, (on account of its comparative bre\'ity) not 



356 An Epitome of Fiery Struggles. 

seem plausible to a prejudiced or contracted understanding, function or 
motive, can be shown therein and wby it is true; as, for example, why, if 
these things be all ti'ue, did my neighbors and friends permit my op- 
pression ? Because I did not wail about my trouble nor proclaim it from 
the housetops or through the press, but kept on my even, peaceful, con- 
fident course; my relatives were far away, I belonged to no clique or 
clan, but looked confidently on "every man in the right as a brother " 
and honesty as honorable. My neighbors and friends are peaceful citi- 
zens — not sharks or containing the element of mobs — and had trouble and 
toil enough of their own io'kee-j^ them very busy, and did not think there 
could be any conviction; naturally thinking that when one had abihty 
enough to prosper so long and well, where so many others had failed, 
that he should have sense and character and means enough to take care of 
himself or to choose proper and safe assistance, if he was right — not sup- 
posing that their own taxes and government could be turned against him 
in such a case, and there was dirt cast and thrown into their eyes [by the 
lying gang] from the outset, through which many could not see clearly. 
But some, of course, did not care anyway, for they could now catch up in 
the rugged stiiiggles of life, foolishly shutting their eyes to the fact, that 
such selfish lack of critical interest [and earnest action'] is just what keeps 
us eternally ground in the dirt; and of their turn to come to feel it, in one 
toay or another— ffty chances to one! 

But my neighbors did volunteer much help, as much of the evidence, 
etc. , shows, and ofi'ered more of such assistance. I have no complaint 
against my neighbors and they have none against me, while there are 
some whose troubles "wdll ever be mine also. 

But the single fact, that the ground and portion of the field where the 
tragedy occurred was never measured, shows how sadly, indeed, they mis- 
judged my ability in choosing honest assistance, though they would not 
oppress me on account of my ignorance. 

The guess of the two interested, prejudiced, distant, etc., prosecution 
witnesses alone was sought and taken as to their distance off from the 
shooting. One was on one side of that body of plowed ground and the 
other about opposite and some distance outside of the fence, and who 
guessed at the distance from the shooting as about half that of the fonner, 
who piit his distance at 140 yards. 

Now there was an Tinprejudiced man i)resent at this pretense of a trial 
who, whUe in my employ, plowed that ground, and he guessed this dis- 
tance, while he was even stepping it so much, to be "a quarter of a mile," 
440 yards, (instead of "210" as put and accepted), but which (440 yards), 
however, was about 100 yards too great; but had it not been deemed by 
others [secretly] against me, that "they had placed themselves fai* enough 
out of distance" and reason, with the other circumstances and imijeach- 
ment against them, then the one quarter of a mile (440 yai'ds) would have 
been his guess evidence as to the same, although subpoenaed by the pro- 



Only Argument of my Case ever Made. 357 

secution in their raking the countrv^ for threats from me — as though I 
would not have the right to defend myself on my own home anyway — (I 
never had a quarrel with any man in my employ, nor did I "murder" any 
of them, nor had I threatened Juniper with more than legal process to 
them, nor would any one of them swear that I had. This one swore, that he 
"plowed about 40 acres for me there," and he jjlowed less days than 
others had for me in breaking this field, and with the same four-horse 
team. Yet, they would not let any of these testify as to the distances. 
And I had hauled and laid into fence nearly every pannel of fence across 
and about there and had worked on this land in this and other ways for 
years, and had it partly fenced before it was sui-s-eyed by the Government, 
so that / could have guessed, as knowingly as anybody, if allowed ; had 
not the eWdence of these two witnesses [don't you forget it] by whom 
my indictment and near ten months of vile duress was cast and my con- 
viction (?) fixed, put uj), secured — been deemed to be already abun- 
dantly refuted, ' ' so that my knowledge as to the fight and trouble and 
distances would be superfluous." Didn't want me to testify at all! [Any 
one who insinuates that I was honestly defended or had any real tri'd, is 
a liar, a thief and a cur, and a traitor at hea7-t.] 

A portion of these rails I bought of Jumper himself in the woods, for 
this expressed purj^ose, and afterwards when he had started in to jump the 
land, he admitted to me m the presence of others, in these, his own words, 
that "no man has ever treated me better than you have." 

This was a quarter section of school land destitute of water (so as to 
be of little or no value as a home by itself) and adjoining my other land. 
I had it leased in due form, besides first improvements, and had it en- 
closed — which was fn-o points more than the law required. Jumper's pre- 
text was that certain sharks had told him to " sail in," that the statute by 
which such lands had, was and is being taken and held (in nearly every 
county of the territory) was void. But as it (the law) had not been abro- 
gated by the courts, and as aU of the statutes are flawed for to be questioned 
for a price, I therefore required, and Avas willing to contend for some- 
thing more ofiicial than his word or other tattle, and then he said he 
" would give me an ounce of lead." And I should have taken it, should I ? 

But another gentleman had been trying to jump another portion of my 
home to which I had for years a United States patent, he going into an- 
other field and took possession of my springs and only water — some one 
hundred and fifty (150) yards AWthin a well marked government Hne on 
deeded land I had lived and pioneered on for years when my settlement 
was a subject of ridicule and jest — and denied me even water necessary for 
my domestic use and that of neighbors who were in a measure dependent 
on the same, and this after I was out over S150 to accommodate him or in 
buying my peace. He told me " if I wanted water, to dig for it," and I 
did not "murder " him, or arm myself in any way, because he only used 
a half dozen men to take possession with — no carbine. I vainly jilead to 



358 An Epitome of Fieey Struggles. 

him for several weeks for only enoiigli Avater for domestic use, and while 
we were carrying it near one-quarter of a mile on his account ; but I 
finally got very tired and ashamed of myself ; then I told the gentleman 
to take a turn as water carrier himself . He did not hke it, and, of course, 
I was in his way then, and so he said ' ' he would help Mr. Jumper Tvith his 
job." 

I was wiUing to divide up occasionally -nith siich influential gentle- 
men so that they would permit me to live in their country, but they fre- 
quently want to take all an " idiotic haymaker " has, to diA'ide it up them- 
selves. And, of course, if the Government and i^ress and false friends 
back them, they can get away with it every time, and butcher anybody in 
the way. Although being aware that the courts do not often defend homes 
without at least mortgaging them into the ground, yet I implored these 
gentlemen, that such was the more civilized and advanced method of get- 
ting them, and if they wanted mine, to take it in that way, that " it would 
look better anyhow and I wanted to see how it was done ; " but to insti- 
tute suits and divide the stock in that way Avould be too tedious for them, 
they Avanted it then, or I must die ! Must I? These gentlemen were 
[close] friends and talked to me of each other, and one of them did show 
me "how it is done," but it was on the gravity of the other one''s funeral. 

It was he with his men and but two or three others of his friends that 
was the power at the throne, at which I was first held or shanghaied; he 
had a shot-gun and others of them were in hke manner armed, and he did 
"do it with a grin." It was afterwards said [and is yetj that a quart of 
whiskey added that night would have been my death, together with that 
of the only near witnesses to their defeat the day before ; but others 
would have bitten the dust also. This is the little midnight mob noted at 
the outset; this is the "serious" grave (?) force that prosectited and 
hunted me to the grave, and which practice is being justified by my blood. 
This is the "brave" (?), patriotic (?), virtuous (?) element "that is thus 
being venerated and backed ! " 

Is there no office without the reach of such power ? no official heart 
but what is mellow to such "serious" (?) jirayers, and hardened to the 
sons of honorable toil ? 

And I have written as truly as Bancroft could write this history, but 
it is no pleasure for me to wi-ite it, and I am suffering because it is triae. 

If your Excellency would grant me but another chance to hve against 
the forty-nine, then jjerniit me to swear to this epitome and only discussion 
of my case, by the sentence, by sections, or as a whole, as far as I j^retend 
to know; stand what is left of me on but the partial level of a haggled, re- 
stored victim, and if any one would face me with a denial, I can be tried 
by another "jury of my countrymen " for perjury, and in which event, if 
it be a'iminals joxir Excellency wants, they can be foiand, though I be not 
convicted any more. 

The good citizens of my section, if your Excellency j^lease, may be 



Only Argument of my Case ever Made. 359 

swayed to trust in men who always have and will tap their granaries to 
the bottom ; but an angel from Heaven could not make them believe that 
they have not lost the grain, or that the covu-ts are perfection, infallible, 
and mercy a sin. 

With all possible humility, and respect and courtesy, I submit for 
decent consideration, whether it is plainly and by good authority shown 
that instead of the flock of crows, so immense as to darken the sun of 
heaven against me, that in truth there never was even a single, solitary little 
blackbird ; and that this storm was put VLp for jjlunder and crime in the 
cowardly, sneaking, traitorous, deadly guise of friendship and of justice. 
And by which I have been plundered of my Hberty and life, of my family, 
of my hard and well earned home and herds, and my children of their 
rightful care and heritage. And this by gentlemen who would rob orphan 
children of their last chicken and their doll, cast them in prison to hide 
their ciime, and would sell their Sa-sdour and their souls for a httle money 
— these cut-throats and sharks ! And on their account I must be butch- 
ered ! 3Iusl I? 

Youi- Excellency seems to have forgotten — it being so long ago — that not- 
withstanding my case ha-vdng not been fully and faii-ly made known to the 
pubUc, that yet my restoration has long since been seriously petitioned for 
by my neighbors — with scarcely exception for several miles about me — 
with a goodly and representative jjortion of the other good citizens of my 
coiiuties and range, and with a portion of that " jury of my countrymen " 
that so hajjlessly "convicted" (?) me, and this without any remonstrance 
from any quarter or person — at least publicly or sqiiarelif done. And that a 
goodly i^ortion of these are Christian men, of manly honor and fine feel- 
ings, and comj^rise the best elements of society ; men who would not chng 
to a legal mistake or fiction if they only half know it, if it desecrates a 
fundamental and beautiful truth, or the sacred sentiment of charity. 
Your Excellency, all of these petitioners know miich as to the struggles in 
earning and holding a home and livehhood in their country, of courts and 
sharks, whom artless men cannot know without experience, of my trouble 
and distress, and they know me, I think, to a man, as a citizen, husband, 
father, and somewhat as an official, and as a neighbor, not as perfection, 
oh, no ; but they are not afraid I would "murder" anybody, or willingly 
bring sorrow to any fireside. These good citizens pray to your Excellency 
that I be no longer held as a depraved criminal ! Are their prayers to 
avail me nothing ? Will siich a force of prayer not phase the executive 
heart and find therein a single spark of mercy ? 

Your Excellency could also discover among these petitions men who 
at the outset of my trouble were active in my downfall, they would give 
me a whkl in the way of business, they would fight me when I could 
fight them in return ; but when they had won the contest, they would 
not oppress me to the death, and have prayed that your Excellency do 
not. Of such as they I never wailed, to such I can cherish no hatred. 



360 An Epitome of Fiery Struggles. 

And I am lotli to open sores that miglit otherwise be healed, and re- 
frain from doing so except so far as my situation comj)els, and "svhieh 
I think your Excellency might consider. Are the prayers of these also 
to be disdained ? 

I would also beg to remind your Excellency of an additional diisty 
petition, comiJosed as it is of re^jresentative men of exalted order in 
my native state, including a Supreme Judge of renowned talents. That 
these petitioners also know me in a manner, and consider my word alone 
good enough for them to base their action on, and they know what was sworn 
to against me. That to imjDose on and stultify these j)etitioners I would 
necessarily be a consummated villain, bom, bred, and practiced ; and to 
presume that they would impose on or stultify your Excellency, wotild not 
be done by those who know them well. It is hard and mortifying to think 
or know that the prayers of such men — who would extend to me from 
afar a helping hand, though in trouble and stigmatized as a felon — glance 
or bound to the gi'ound. 

But though your Excellency may consider all of the ardent prayers 
in my behalf as if but a casual breeze, and me as a vicious animal, fit only 
for the yoke and the slaughter, and my wife and children as but suitable 
victims and game for depravity ; yet, thank God, those of my kind (and the 
kind are numerous) who know me and my trouble well, do not so consider 
the matter ; thoiagh they be powerless to avail me anything but fruitless, 
though ardent prayers. 

His Honor — though not famed for excessive mercy, and with the dis- 
cord of such position, and also Avhile not fully knowing my case — has said 
that had the literal statiite permitted it under the verdict, he would have 
made my sentence five years instead of ten, and that he would not oppose 
my pardon at any time before. 

That if, therefore, I have any rights whatever any more, but to sufifer, 
and quiver, and die ; and it be only a rightful proposition to consider ten 
years as but a technical sentence, and five as the moral orsj^irit of the judg- 
ment against me, and that I am by right entitled to the time I suffered in 
jail, begging for a trial ; and the abatement of time provided by law for 
good conduct, applied on such judgment, then I will in October ne.vt have 
fulfilled the full terms of s^ich judgment. And if this is done, then therefore 
I most respectfully submit if your Excellency will not then have entirely 
rejected all of the manifest prayers, showings, and proofs, so earnestly, 
honestly and humbly offered for executive clemency. And that any- 
thing beyond would be simj^ly enforcing a hard, unusual, unintended, 
technical, distressing, unlawfial swindle of a verdict; made out of fixed 
evidence, sprung on duress without a moments warning or recourse, and 
ground out in part by about 13 months of false, pernicious, dastardly im- 
prisonment and fear, fixed up and plotted for the purpose. And I must 
be butchered in order to stuff such practice down the throat of the pubhc 



Only Argument of my Case ever Made. 361 



as "honorable" (?) must 17 That sharks and ciit-throats may fatten on 
human misery and blood. 

That the single germane, indisputable fact, that Jumper w as hunting 
me on mv home, "with a cocked carbine in both hands, wdth murder in his 
heart, and having declared to me and to others that " he -would do so and 
kill me" on the very occasion, makes e\ddent of itself that his death was 
only a pretext and blind used by unconvicted, criminal sharks, to use the 
power and taxes and j^rotection of government to suck my blood. And 
had these blood-suckers been in like manner and intent with Jumper at 
the front and I had killed them all, would it have been murder ? Or am 
I and my whole tribe savages or fools, indeed ? 

Though always loth to bewail my troubles with or to men, yet, I owe 
it to myself, to my children and my kind, to tlms submit my case at this 
late day for public as well as executive consideration, as I am still being 
haggled in the deadly giiise of friendshii> and of justice, till some of my 
old friends would hardly know me now; and my name and pride which 
before was not considered bad, to take alone in the way of business any- 
way, is being haggled too. And I have been choked and suppressed and 
oppressed, and betrayed and sold, till this is but a death rattle. But if any- 
thing in conflict with, or denial of any of my averiments be embraced and 
then intelligently and honestly sifted, pressed and hammered, it wall fly 
in burned fragments, and no point be made that -will jiierce or turn any I 
have f»hown in my case or character. And let any one who would care to 
know ihe truth as to my trouble know it now and not forget it, as is valu- 
ed alJ that is most dear and sacred and beautiful to man. 

Very truly, 

Geo. W. France." 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Prison experience concluded. — Efforts to get my case before tlie Supreme 
Court. — Copious extracts from my diaiy kept in prison. — "Consider- 
ing my case."— "Seeing about it, " etc. , etc. — My appeals to Legis- 
latures, tlie President, Congi'ess, etc.- — How changes in Governors, 
etc., are discussed by prisoners. — Prisoners that were shanghaied and 
never co7ivicted.—E.oyv I established my good conduct against the lying 
gang. — The " good Judiciary. " — Efforts of and for other prisoners 
and results. — Eemoval to Walla Walla. — My release, etc. 

1 HE Governor treated the epitome, etc., of tlie foregoing 
chapter just as he had all other communications in my behalf, 
because he was able to squelch it from the people, of whom he 
said, " they make great clamor over pardoning." He was dead 
to every generous or just emotion and every elevated senti- 
ment. 

So then I made an effort with the " good Judiciary " to 
grant me some kind of a trial wherein I could be defended or 
defend myself, and in accordance with the same wrote the 
following letter : 

"Seatco, Thurston Co., W. T., June 21st, 1882. 
Hon. S. C. Wingard: 

I hereby apj^ly to your Honor for a new trial. I can show ten times 
more than the reasons usually deemed sufficient for other men. The sub- 
stance of which are that there is not, and never was, any real case of crime 
against me, and there was and is an abundance of proof to estabUsh be- 
yond disjiute my entire innocence of any crime. That I simjjly killed an 
assassin, who was hunting me like a wild beast on my own home, with a 
cocked carbine in both hands and declared murder in his heart; that I shot 
only after he had made the attack and fired the first shot, and while he was 
trying to kill me with his gun again cocked; that I thus defended my life 
by every other right, besides following the advice, counsel and direction 
of a "court of justice"; that my commitment to jail was bulldozed by a 
little armed gang in the middle of the night, (which gang had previously 
tried to jump another portion of my home, to which I had a U. S. patent) 
they having a shyster "lawyer" for ^clerk and to fix up the proceedings, 
who was also their prosecuting attorney, and I was not permitted any 
defense. 

That when in duress, my counsel betrayed or sold me, kept me m jail 
for over nine months, AvhUe they helped to manage my conviction, not- 
withstanding you had declared a wiUingness to give me an im- 

(362) 



My Kelease. 363 



mediate trial, or examination, Avliicli slioiUd have ended my trouble. That 
they extorted my means of defense by the most base, false pretenses, and 
refused to be discharged when I had found them out. ThatC. . exjiressed 
^ith me at court great surprise at the trick sj^rung on the stand (that the 
gun Avas aimed at another), when it transj^ired that he had before granted 
this in his charge for you that was rejected. That he had preAiously de- 
clared to me, that he "had great influence with the court, that it loved him 
though he despised it, and that he had Avritten a charge for it which would 
be the charge to the Jury, and under which I must be acquitted, so it 
Avould be sujjerfluous to make out or show all of my case," or to hammer to 
pieces and destroy (as could be done) all that was sworn against me. 

All of which foregoing I will swear to and can give a bill of particulars 
as to the same, as conclusive as any similar victim ever can under the same 
circumstances and duress. 

If there is any recourse for such as me in the courts of this country, I 
want to find it; and I most respectfully and courteously hereby apply to 
you to assist me in doing so. 

Geo. W. France." 

I also applied to others and to the Chief Justice of the 
Supreme court, only to find it to be so exclusive and high- 
priced and prostituted that to get there I would have to pave 
the way and by-ways with gold in quantities which, by this 
time, I had not. 

Could anarchy be any worse condition for the common 
people ? 

Some months after the delivery of my epitome to the Gov- 
ernor, he was at the bastile and I took occasion to spread out 
a copy of it on a table before him, and urged him " to point out 
a single move, intent or act in my conduct as to the fight, or any- 
where in the trouble that was bad, and to say what more he 
required ? " 

To which he replied in the presence of others (which I 
have the documents to prove), " Of course, France, you have a 
very strong case ; I cannot discuss it with you, but I will let you 
go on the recommendation or favorable report of the Judge." 
To which I replied, " You know. Governor, that Judge Win- 
gard will not recommend or solicit any man's pardon." "But," 
he replied, " I do not require that ; you get only Sb/avoraUe 7'e- 
port or word from him and I ivill let you go" 

I then asked him if he knew Mr. N . . , ex-president of the 
council, and " whether he would consider him a reliable man ? " 



364 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

to whicli he replied that he " did know him and considered him 
very reliable, indeed." I asked him to " publish my case and 
argument (epitome) and see if anyone could be found who 
would assail it or discuss it with me." No reply. I then sug- 
gested that " he refer the question of pardon to any three 
ministers," he replied he "guessed we could get along without 
preachers." (The one who came there said he "would have 
done just as I did, by the evidence.") I then wrote to Mr. N. . 
stating to him what the Governor had promised, and requested 
him to see the Judge accordingly, to which . Mr. N . . replied as 
follows directed to me : 

"Dayton, W. T., October 10th, 1882. 
Mr. Wm. B. . [who was the chief contractor of the bastile.] 

Sik: — Yon will do me a favor to assist Geo. W. France to get a jjardon. 
I know he has paid the i^enalty of the crime, which he was imj^risoned for. 
Therefore, it being justice to the man and the laws, I ask that yon see the 
Governor and state the case to him. 

Judge Wingard thinks that France is entitled to a pardon. 
Yours truly, 

K. G. NEWIiAND." 

Also this to me : 

Datton, W. T., Oct. 10th, 1882. 

I have received yours of the 7th, inst., and also 

one before that, I should have answered, but Judge Wingard was away at 
the time. I spoke to him last Saturday; he said, he was wilHng that you 
should have an unconditional pardon now, and I hope the Governor will 
grant you an unconditional pardon immediately. 

Every one here that knows anything of your case exj^resses a desire to 
have yon pardoned. So the Governor need not be afraid that the public 
opinion is opposed to youi- being pardoned out of prison. 

Y'^ours truly, 

E. G. Newland." 

Not hearing from this effort, I addressed the Governor as 
follows: 

"Seatco, Oct. 26th, 1882. 
To his Excellency: — [Bill Links.] 

I herewith send your Excellency copies of letters from the Hon. E. G. 
Newland, transmitting Judge Wingard's substantial recommendation for 
my pardon. BeHeving that this fulfills your Excellency's requirements 
and trusting that you will not be unmindful of your promise, I, therefore, 
have sent for means to reach the WTeck of my home and family. 

I presume this matter has been presented to you by Mr. B . . , as he 



My Kelease. 365 



has promised to do so, and "lend all the assistance in procuring mj release 
that hes in his jjower," but I would not neglect any portion of dihgeace, 
duty or l}ri^•ilege in such a vital matter to me and mine. I have said that I 
was "svilling to be obligated to show and establish to the satisfaction of the 
Judge, that there was not even the shadow of any true case of crime 
against me, and I still court the oiJiJortunity to do so. 

Veiy resijectfully, 

Geo. W. France. 

Copy. Seatco, W. T., November 24th, 1882. 

Deak Sister: — Yours of the 8th, inst., just received, -svith $25; but my 
pardon is still -w-ithheld, notwithstanding the Judge's substantial recom- 
mendation and the Governor's promise that this would effect my release. 
Geo. W. France. " 

From my Prison Diary. 
"Jan. 20th, 1883. — Gov. [Links] here. He came to me, sjioke and 
extended his hand very cordially; examined the medicine I was taking 
(digitalis, iron and bismuth), noted my condition, saying: "you are cer- 
tainly quite unwell," etc., and that he " icoukl see me again before he left.'" 
But he did not, and left without me getting anything out of him as to my 
release and the Judge's substantial recommendation. He is on his way to 
the States." 

So I again appealed to the Judge, as follows : 

"Seatco, W. T., March 1st, 1883. 
The Hon. S. C. "Wingard. — I beg your Honor to consider that in 
August next, without any rebatement (and to concede to me the time I lav 
in jail begging for a trial), I will have suflfered five years of most terrible 
imijrisonment and distress; that my health is impaired, and that my home, 
that I toiled the best years of my hfe to make, my means of Hvelihood, 
family and affairs are in a most encumbered and deplorable condition, be- 
yond my control. That, as I am jilaced, I cannot attend to and protect 
anything, and friends who would help me declare their inability to do so, 
and that I am "already ruined ! " They have suggested that I take certain 
action in the matter, but find that my duress is such that I cannot ac- 
compUsh anything, nor to even communicate with my wife and children 
to know definitely the jDroper mode to pursue. And the breach is made 
wider, the intriguing coil drawn tighter, and the ravage more ruinous every 
day and hour. I beg your Honor to consider that I have ever earnestly 
plead and affirmed that there was in truth never a stronger case of self- 
defense, and that there was and is indisijutable jjroof to establish this be- 
yond fair question, and all else that I have claimed. And I have continu- 
ally, from the day of the tragedy, plead and begged for an opportunity to 
so establish it. But instead of granting this right I am condemned to 
destruction, with no effective recourse, except through your Honor's more 
earnest endeavor. If you are loth to otherwise effect my release now, under 



366 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

sucii -sdtal and critical circumstances and misfortune — far reaching as they 
be — or if discredit as to the truth of anything I have uttered be in the way, 
then I beg that you recommend and urge my release on condition that I 
make each and every assertion that I have made and do make as to any 
phase of my case, situation, condition and trouble, good and estabhshed 
Avithin a given time to your Honor's satisfaction, and to be held in reason- 
able restraint or obhgation till the same be done. Grateful for favors 
done, I implore you to consider well the full meaning of every Avord here- 
in uttered, and that I am "willing to stake Avhat is left of my life and fortune 
on the truthfulness of my assertions, and that time and events have already 
proven much that was considered as with a sneer. 

Most respectfully, and in great distress 

Geo. W. France." 

March 6ik, 1883. — Note from sister M. J., in the States, dated FeVy 
75th, that "they were telegraphing to find the Governor to interview him, 
etc." 

March 18th. — Received letter from M. J., at Trenton, N. J., where 
they were to see the Governor, who had just left very suddenly, but inter- 
views his son and interests other parties, so that they are confident I "lotVZ 
he released in a inonth." Date of letter, MarcJi 1st. 

Marcli20th. — Received the following terms for my release, in 
the name of " the people " (?) (that had really declared that 
they were unanimous for my restoration) which I will give as a 
fair example of several such propositions : 

"PoMEROY, Garfield Co., W. T., March 8th, 1883. 
G. W. France, Seatco, W. T. 

Dear Sir: — I write to you to ask what is the least you will take for 

a deed to your homestead 

This is private between us. I have been feeling the pulse of the "people " 
and trying in every way to see what chance there is for you to be released. 
I know of only one way possible, and that is for you to have a few hundred 
dollars. Would communicate the facts, if I knew how to get them to you 
privately. 

It is no illegal plan,' but the best plans are sometimes frustrated by too 
many knowing them. 

Let me hear from you at once, and the least you Avill take in cash to 
sign a deed to the land named. 

Would you give it to get out honorably, if it could not be effected for 
less ? 

Hoping you are in health, I remain yours, 



Oh, no ! this "people'' (?) ("who clamor") would not rob 
or ravage, or murder anybody. They would only give them " a 



My Kelease. 367 



fair and unprejudiced trial," (?) torture, betray, deceive and loot 
them of all — everything they possess ! And do it so " legal- 
ly " and so " honorably " (?) while to sand-bag a man, take only 
$9 and a silver watch and let him go on home, is made a crime ! 

" Oh, consistency, thou art a jewel." But think of the ex- 
cursion tickets, the segars and whiskey and newspaper puffs 
this "people " (?) would enjoy out of so many years of toil and 
honest endeavor ! Oh ! my " people ! " Would you, oh, would 
you, so "legally" and so "honorably'' picnic in my miserable 
ruin, or " clamor " that I die ? 

Is this the price of liberty ? No ! not even that, but to still 
toil on for another such picnic to the gang. 

"For THIS his sioord the midnight ruffian draws; 
For THIS the licensed murderer spurns the laws. 
Rears his proud head diminish' d justice o'er. 
His trophies wat'ring with a brother's gore.'^ 

" The dagger, hid in honors specious guise." 

March 24th. — Governor [Links] here. Was distant and cold, said, 
"he knew my case as well or better than I did, and if he wanted to talk 
any more to me about it, he wonld let me know." 

" There was a laughing devil in his sneer." 

He would "S7nile and smile, while secret icounds did bleed beneath mt 
cloaTc. " 

Perhaps I had better deliver up my homestead, my livelihood, so 
many years of honest toil, and take to the road. Curse them,, if I do ! 
" Raised the fire of vengeance in the heart.'' But how do I know, but they 
would take the price and hold me all the same, or put me in the ground to hide 
their crimes, as no secukitt is held out that I loould not yet be held. 

' ' Some men have so little sense of honor, that they do not regard an 
oath as to their duty, even in the discharge of official duty. He who kicks 
at this, his conscience stings and is the man." 

March 20th. — Mr. B. . came to see me; said, " there was no 
public sentiment against me whatever, and that the people 
wanted me out, except members of the gang," and said he 
" would see the devils in hell before he would give them a dollar 
more." But /was to be in hell while they were in clover. 

April 18th. — Received letter from M. J., that they had been again to 
New Jersey and "were assured by the Governor's son, that lie would soon 
accomplish my release," etc. 



368 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

"Oh, labor to keep aKve in your breast that little spark of celestial 
fire, called conscience. " 

As to his Excellency's veracity: lie writes as follows to a 
sister in the States : 

" Tekkitoky of Washington. — Executive Department. 

Olympia, March 30th, 1883. 

Dear Madam : — I did not receive your note 

desiring to see me until after I reached this place. My son, Dr. [Links] , 
Jr., wrote to me. I have given much investigation to the case of Mr. 
France, and regret to inform you, that it was a much more aggi-avated case 
of mortal shooting than, perhaps, you know of. His case was fairly tried 
and the Judge considers the j^enalty not excessive. I must state reluctantly to 
you, that I have but little consideration for any person who takes human 
life, except in clear cases of self-defense. 

I am yours truly, 

[Bill Links.]" 

To which she replies as follows : 

Governor [Liaks]. — Dear Sir: — Yours of the 30th of 

March was duly received and its most mysterious contents sadly read, and 
to our great sorrow not favorable to my brother's release. Wliy is it that 
Judge Wingard acts so strangely in this matter? He certainly has to others 
said plainly that he would not oppose his pardon, besides the petition for 

his release was signed by almost the whole community 

His action seems so strange. 

Did you not long ago receive a letter transmitting Judge Wingard's 
substantial recommendation for his pardon ? 

The clique who set [Jumper] up, to get brother in trouble, was gov- 
erned by no principle or feeling but those which avarice and unprincipled 
ambition inspire, and are prospeiing on brother's hard earned property; and 
it is to their interest to keep him imprisoned as long as possible, so that he 
may have nothing left with which to redress his wrongs. 

I can very easily see how impossible it is for one occupying the positon 
of Governor, to understand the workings of so deep laid a plot. But should 
any man attack another, as he was attacked, on his own home, while quiet- 
ly engaged with his emjiloyees sowing wheat, in this State most surely the 
verdict would he justifiable. 

Time wiU convince you, honored sir, of the innocence of any crime, 
save of the clique and [Jumper] their agent. 

My dear brother is losing his health and suffering more than tongue 
can tell, and innocent as yot;, sir, or /of any crime, save that of defending his 
own life; and all he needs, is a chance to show that there was not even a 
shadow of any true case of crime against him, and he courts the op- 
jjortunity. 



My Eelease. 369 



The Jury was composed of au element that we would all be very slow 
in intrusting so important a case. Some men have no sense of honor and 
no regard for their oath. 

I confess myself, that I would have very little consideration for any 
person who takes human life, except in clear cases of self-defense, and I 

am sure that this was such a case 

M.J." 

May 12th, 1883. — Keceive word from G. H. . . that he will "arith the 
sanction and in coitj unction with Judge Wingard'^ endeavor to get me released. 

[Wbicli is tlie opposite of his Excellency's statement, that 
*' the Judge considers the sentence not excessive;" so one or the 
other evidently lies ; or else the Judge is " strange," indeed,] 
' ' Calumny is often added to oppression, if but /or the sake of justifying it. " 

But I have a few friends left through all such reports of 
" the lying gang," and some of them urge the " good Judge " to 
recommend my release direct to the Governor, and to establish 
who it is that is such a cold-blooded, villainous, brutal, cow- 
ardly, unmitigated liar, and he replies as follows : 

" Walla Walla, W. T., June 1st, 1883. 
His Excellency [Bill Links] , Governor. 

Sik: — George W. France, now in the Ter. penitentiary laider sen- 
tence for murder in the second degree, has served imprisonm,ent as long as I 
would have sentenced him to undergo, had the law allowed a less sentence than 
I imposed. Very respectfully, 

S. C. WiNGARD, Judge." 

The foregoing document is considered by other Governors 
to be alone recommendation enough to release prisoners, with 
nothing else done in their behalf. One Governor (Knott) de- 
clared in his inaugural address that he would grant pardons or 
commute sentences " only when the court is satisfied that the 
sentence is unjust." 

And to hold me longer with this staring him in the face 
was to rob and torture me on the flimsy pretext of a mere tech- 
nical sentence that had been thus abrogated by the " good Judge." 
The Governor was so guilty that he would not face me any 
more to talk, or make any reply to this recommendation ; he 
heeded it no more than he had the other. He would not even 
criticise or make objection to it. The question now was " what 
excuse would he invent next to spit at my stand-by friends, to 
injure me, and yet not aggravate them so they would get mad 

24 



370 Extracts feom Diaky Kept in Prison. 

and howl out his brutal and mysterious conduct to the public ? " 
So they and I were always being advised to " keep still" 

But / could get mad and still be damned ; for could they 
not squelch my letters, etc., and thus keep me in the dark, and 
the truth hid from the people who " clamor ? " This censorship 
over a prisoiier's correspondence should he killed I 

July Stli. — "R. F. . . and J. . . jumped again." 
July 10th.—'' T. . . and F. . . jumped." 

And who could honestly blame them to jump from such a 
bell and such a Governor? Why should they be in prison and 
the lying gang in clover? They had a right -by the higher law 
of Heaven — to wade over the carcasses of such as would hold 
them there. 

July 13/h. — S. . . came here from Dayton; brought word from B. . . 
that "he was going to work to get me out," etc. 

July 23rd. — Get note ["underground"] from a friend, as follows: 
" Cop^"^ of Judge W. 's recommendation received; all right. Be patient. 
Your release will surely come ere long from the Governor." 

We had to smuggle, when we could, such vital papers, 
letters and life-or-death business — out and in the bastile — so 
they would not be squelched by the lackeys of the gang. 

July 29th. — I get the following : " We have just returned from Tren- 
ton agam; 71010 viake your calculations to be released very soon." 

" Oh, what a tangled web we weave, 
Whene'er we practise to deceive! " 

Aug. Sill. — Received letter from Mr. W. . . [It was registered, so I got 
it; but, thoTigh he wrote several others, I did not get any of them.] He 
says, that " Judge B. . . is working for my release; had Avritten to the Gov- 
ernor and to Judge Wingard; that he was personally acquainted with 
them both, and that he would go and see the Governor and urge my 
release; and they were 'very confident 0/ success.' Also, that my wife 
was working for my release and thought it so veiy strange, I did not 
get her letters." — [I had written a dozen letters to her without receiving 
any reply.] 

It afterwards transpired that his Excellency next invented 
for an excuse to still hold on to me ; not that he " was consider- 
ing my case," nor "that it was not yet time to consider it," nor 
that " the people would clamor," nor that " I had had a fair 
trial by an unprejudiced jury and a "good Judge," nor that 



My Eelease. 371 



"my case was such an aggravated one," nor yet that "the (jood 
Judge did not consider the sentence excessive," because all of 
these excuses were now worn out and known to my friends to 
he, false pretexts, and he knew that they knew them thus to be. 
But as his conduct had not made my friends desperate or 
dangerous to him, but only disgusted and sick, and as he was 
keeping me choked down (I " must keep quiet ! ") he could 
therefore feed them most anything to keep them sick and stilly 
while I luas dying in the agony of suspense and of despair. So 
he spit this rot into the face of Judge B . . and others, that my 
" coiuiuct loas very, very bad. " 

Great God ! Is a man supposed to have an?/ "conduct" 
after so many years of cruel torture, and ravage, and betrayal, 
and lying deceit ? Deluded, deceived, oppressed, trifled with, 
and murdered in a living tomb ? 

" Oh judgement tliou (trifled to brviish beasts, 
And men have lost their reason.'" 

And if he still lives and has some kind of "conduct " left is 
he to blame ? 

And yet, during this very time the chief prison officials 
were promising to recommend my pardon to the Governor " if 
he would but request it of them." And neither they or the 
Governor had any charge against my conduct to make to my 
face. 

About this time a friend told them that "it was a G — d 

d d brutal outrage for them to hold on to me as they did." 

Nor did they dispute or discuss the matter with him either, 
though he put it to them in their own language. 

Aug. l-5th. — Received the foUo^Adng from the States: "Judge K. . . 
is hourly expecting an answer by telegrajjh from the Governor." 

"Not so your friend — with grief oppressed I see 
That jjeace, which smiles on many, frown on me." 

Sept. 13th. — "So far we can hear nothing from the Governor. We 
are doing everything that can be done, to get him to act at once." 

Sept. 2 ■5th. — "We are still in suspense. Judge R. . . and are 

doing all in their poicer" 

(It takes a lot of killing, exp)ensive experience and a long time 
for outsiders to learn the mystic, traitorous ways of a secret 
gang.) 



372 EXTBACTS FROM DiARY KePT IN PrISON. 

Then the Governor's son wrote to a sister as follows : 

"Tkenton, N. J., Oct. 2nd, 1883. 

.-. .My father wrote me in reference to your brother, 

and I do not think, from the tenor of his letter, that he is very favor- 
able towards his jjardon. 

I anticipate going to "Washington Territory about November 1st. 
Please "WTite to me and give me your brother's full name, I have for- 
gotten it. Yours very truly, [Bill Links], Jr." 

[And so, even he had to judge by the mei'e " te7io7' " of the 
Governor's letter, as to what he would do.] 

October 1st. — Legislature met, and reports come that some 
of the members and others are determined to secure my re- 
lease ; whereupon the " doctor-Governor-and-the-law " ex- 
claimed to a number of men : " Well, by G-o-a-d, France is a 
man that always behaves himself and attends to his own busi- 
ness, and he has been here long enough, by G-o-a-d," which 
did not correspond with his Excellency's rot to distant friends 
" that my conduct was exceedingly bad," and some of such dis- 
tant friends blamed and lectured and charged me severely over 
and over again to " behave myself and keep quiet ! " "OA, they 
could not help me unless I luould quit being so bad, and ivas very 
quiet.'' " Yes ! *in some way ' (but tvhat way they could not dis- 
cover, except that I did not keep still enough.) I had ofended 
the Governor!" [Horrible, horrible thought, to "offend" his 
Excellency (?)] 

That such slimy cattle as these blackleg governors could in 
any way get my friends to doubt me, knoivn as I was to 
them, made my flesh creep and me feel that : 

"With friends and falsehood I have done : 

I've fifty had and yet not one. 

They are only adders in the breast : 

That nestling in, devour their nest; 

That pleasing dream forever o'er 

]VIy bosom I unlock no more, 

Yet though all hope oi friends is fled, 

I'll place acquaintance in their stead, 

I weep the sad exchange I own, 

(For my poor heart's not callous grown.") 
But the governor never dared to tell, outside of the gang, 
wherein I " offended" or my "conduct was so exceedingly bad." 



My Release. 373 



Those who heard the superintendent and others talk about 
it at this time, thought I would be released sure. 

A member of the Legislature from my section said, "France 
did wrong, but if he had not killed the man, lie ivoidd have killed 
France ! " 

Copy. "Seatco, Wash. Territoby, October 14th, 1883. 

Hon. S. C Wingakd : 

Dear Sir : — Your certificate, etc., of June Ist, 1883, was gratefully 
received aud sent to the Governor, but has afforded me no relief. Have 
not the wishes of those who so criminally conspired to murder, plunder, 
and outrage me and my famdy been sufficiently gratified aud snn<jtioiied? 
You must certainly know — if you have taken any jiains to find out the 
truth — that there was not the shadow of any true case of crime against me. 
But if you think there was, then whij dont youname to me the pomt or 
points, or phase in which you may think me guUty, and give me a respect- 
ful hearing as to the same, inasmuch as I was not accorded this at the 
more proper time ? I was thus shanghaied in your court and sentenced to 
this jjrison by yourself ; but you have certified to the effect that you did 
not quite mean it to be my destruction, and for which I am certainly duly 
grateful. But how near it has destroyed me and mine you must be aware; 
and as the Governor is as he is, will you not therefore please concede to 
urge my case yet more strongly and effectively after all these years of 
suffering and abuse, and of cheating hoj^es ? 

Most respectfully, Geo. W. France." 

The efforts of those who were to get me out having availed 
nothing, I made the following appeal to the Legislature : 

" Seatco Prison, Wash. Territory, November 17th, 1883. 
To the President of the council and the Speaker of the House — the honor- 
able Legislature at Olymiaia, W^ash. Territory. 

I hereby earnestly request that your body investigate my case ; there 
never being any true case of crime against me, as is shown beyond dispute 
or refutation to his Excellency, the 'Governor. My case being in truth — 
as can be seen — the strongest case of self-defense ever brought to trial in 
this Territory with an abundance of i^roof to establish it. 

And I have the strongest petitions, vouchers, recommendations, etc., 
ever filed at Olympia in a similar case, including a goodly ijortion of the 
jury, the Judge aud all of my neighbors (except one) for my release. And 
his Excellency promised to "let me go on the recommendation or favor- 
able repm-t of the Judge. " Yet I am being thus held to the destiiiction of 
my health, and the ravage of my family and home I carved in the wilder- 
ness, and where three of my children were bom. I beg for an investiga- 
tion in which I am accorded a respectful hearing, which mf estal)lished 
character should entitle me to receive ; or that I be allowed to make my 



374 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

case known to the Christian associations of the country, and to attend to 
my business. Geo. W. France. " 

" Walla WAiiLA, Wash. Teekitoby, June 1st, 1883. 
His Excellency [Bill Links] Governor : 

Sir : — George W. France, now m the Ter. penitentiary under 
sentence for murder in the second degree, has served iinx>risonment as long as 
I mould have sentenced him to undergo had the law allowed a less sentence than 
I imposed. Very respectfully, 

S. C. Wingard, Judge." 
G. W. F." 

In the published report of the legislative proceedings of 
November 27th, 1883, was the following, and all the papers 
publishing the legislative proceedings contained substantially 
the same paragraph : 

" A petition was read from a jarisoner now confined in the jjenitentiary 
at Seatco named Geo. W. France, certified to by Judge Wingard, relative 
to his confinement, and asking for an investigation of his case. A com- 
mittee was appointed to examine into the matter and report." 

"December 13th, 1883 :- Gowernor [Links] and son here; 
the latter sought an interview with me and informed me that 
he " had promised my people in the States to do all he could 
with his father for my release but had not as yet presented my 
case to him," [which made me acquainted with him, for he had 
arrived at Olympia nearly a month previously, and now he had 
no information for me and did not ivant any from me. The Gov- 
ernor was polite enough, asked me how long I had served, 
thought I looked better in health, etc., and inquired about 
some of my folks in the States, but had never a tvord to say 
about my " bad conduct " that he had been and was reporting 
to others. I could not get any information from him as to my 
release. They returned to Olympia when Dr. [Links], jr. sent 
the following letter to the States : 

"Territory oe Washington, Executive Department. 

Olympia, December 13th, 1883. 



I went to see your brother Geo. W. France to-day. I have not had 
an oj^portunity prior to this. Your brother seemed to be quite cheerful. 
My father has not been able to do anything for him as yet. I do not know 
exactly wha€ course he means to pursue. 

Yours very truly, [Bill Links], jr." 



My Eelease. 375 



[Those who wilfully tolerate secret ''mystery" in office, 
should be made to suffer its practical workings direct.] 

^^ January 7tli, 1884. — Dr. Linlcs, jr., in reply to a letter -wrote : "I 
had a free conversation -witli your brother concerning his case, and under- 
stand it thoroughly. The legislature did not apjjoint any committee to in- 
vestigate his case. Judge Wingard has not recommended his pardon. 

Yours, etc., [Bill Links], jr." 

We had no conversation about my case at all. He did not 
want any. As to the other matters they are on record, as I have 
shoii'n. A committee of three tvas appointed by the legislature, 
but one of my shyster lawyers and one of my jury (both masons 
and wicked enemies) managed to get on to it in the deadly 
guise of friendship, and thus was the investigation and report 
squelched. I wrote several letters to the committee but could 
never get any reply or any hearing. 

A member of that legislature told me that " Judge Wingard 
joined in urging him and other members to work for my re- 
lease, but that 'they had no injivence whatever ivith the Governor 
in my behalf.^ " [He evidently owed first allegiance to his secret 
sivorn brethren and their government.] 

^'January 9ih, 1884. — Dr. Links, jr., came here as jirison physician. 

" January 23rd. — Governor [Links] here. I asked him if he would let 
me go ? He rejilied that he " "would see about it;" so he has quit "con- 
sidering " it and is going to " see about it." Sincerity never thus equivo- 
cates. 

Who is it that is an unmitigated liar ? From Judge Win- 
gard : 

" Walla Walla, Wash. Tebeitoky, January 26th, 1884. 



Your favor of the 16th inst. is received. I sentenced Mr. France to 
the minimum term of ten years. If I could have done so I -nould have 
sentenced him to five years imi:)risonmeut, because in my oiDiuion that 
would have been all he deserved. I have written to the Governor saying 
that five years imprisonment would atone for his crime. Why the Gov- 
ernor does not pardon him I do not know. I have heard, but could not 
prove it, that Mr. France has offended the Governor in some way. The 
relations of the Governor and myself in regard to pardoning have not been 
harmonious. The Judge has no power to pardon. 

EespectfuUy yours, etc., S. C. Wingakd." 

In what way did I offend (?) his Excellency ? Was it be- 



376 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

cause I did not surrender the wreck of my home, or ivhat ? Why 
did he not dare to state wherein I " offended " him ? And again: 

"Waixa Waila, "Wash. Tekkitoky, Febmary 13, 1884. 

Yours of the 5tla inst. enclosing tlie letter of [Bill Links], jr., is at 
hand. I herewitli return said letter as yon request. 

The letter -which I wrote to the Governor — the substance of which I 
stated in my last letter to you — I sent to Geo. W. France, and I know he 
received it. What he did with it I do not know. It is to be supj^osed he 
sent it to the Governor [of course, I did]. I know nothing of Mr. France's 
family since I refused to entertain her (Mrs. F) apphcation for a divorce. 
Eespectfully yours, S. C. Wingakd." 

The Governor and Co. seemed to think that their efforts to 
malie tliis a secret prison were entirely successful, so that 
people must talxc their tvordsfor the truth, while the facts would 
be squelched when the victims were made to " l-eej) still" And 
according to the following from the son and " executive clerk " 
I was getting along S2)lendidhj, so why was the rush and clamor 
about me getting out into the cold, cruel world ! Nor does it 
appear that I was " offensive " to anybody here or to the gov- 
ernor. It is the cruel, unjust " people " again who are so hos- 
tile," and would " clamor " against my liberty. But why did 
they not tell this to the people, or their true representatives ? To 
them the pretext was, that " m?/ conduct teas had," or I had in 
some mysterious way '* offended the Governor," and why did he 
hold me through all those previous years of. unjust suffering 
and destruction, during which time it was conceded that my con- 
duct was good ? 

But what need he care about my " offensive " conduct as 
an unwilling victim to depravity, when the people with whom I 
had and was to live were so well satisfied with m}^ conduct as a 
citizen among them that they clamored for my restoration ? 

" Tl^KKITOKY OF WASHINGTON, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, 

OiiYMPiA, January 24th, 1884. 



Your letter received. In regard to yom- brother's pardon I will say 
that no committee was appointed by the Legislature to investigate his case. 

I saw Mr. France yesterday ; he is in good health and spirits. It is 
impos-sible for you, Avithout practical knowledge of frontier hfe, to under- 
stand how hosUle the people are to pardon persons who have committed 



My Kelease. 377 



cajjital offenses, and liow difficult it is for the Executive to carry out liis 
personal inclinations, especially in cases ■where prisoners ai"e well con- 
nected, and interest manifested in their release. The Governor Avould 
gladly accede to your request, but there is at this time so much of violent 
crimes committed that the pubhc visit their extremest indignation at any 
liberality exercised in this direction. 

Just so soon as he can consistently do so, he will give favorable con- 
sideration to your a^jplication in behalf of your brother. 
Yours respectfully, 

[BiLii Links] jr.. Executive Clerk." 

At the very time the doctor and executive clerk says I was 
"in good health and spirits," he was dosing me with digitalis, 
opium, bromide and iron — standard medicine for heart disease, 
with which they had afflicted me. And he repeatedly stated 
that he was " giving me stronger medicine, and more of it, than 
he gave out to any other patient that he had, as my condition 
required it." 

And the governor, who, when bounced as Governor, suc- 
ceeded his son as prison doctor, frequently censured and forbid 
me giving any of my medicine to others similarly afflicted, as " it 
was too strong for their condition." Sometimes it seemed that 
they were determined that I should die here, and were I not 
endowed with exceedingly strong vitality they would have suc- 
ceeded, so that I would never have a hearing ! And how 
"good [?] my spirits" were in such a dying condition, can 
never be told. 

Not satisfied to defame me as to my case, my family, my 
conduct and my standing with the people ! they must lie about 
my condition, when vainly struggling for even a- hearing in my 
own behalf, and suffering in their hell of a living and dying 
tomb all the tortures that devils could inflict and their victims 
endure ! 

But I always hoped and prayed for something of a here- 
after, wherein I would be accorded as much as a respectful and 
honest hearing that would be beneficial to others if not to my- 
self ; and I managed to get the following certificate from the 
ex-Governor : 

"Seatco, W. T., August 30th, 1886. 
George W. France has been confined for many years, his heart action 



378 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

is very weak and impaires liis liealth generally. He lias been under medi- 
cal treatment for four years. [Bniii Links] M.D. 

Physician to the Territorial Penitentiary." 

As to the " people [?] of the frontier," even the tender- 
feet of Boston and New York knew and have always known that 
the "people of the frontier" are never "hostile" to a home- 
builder for killing a robber and assassin in the act, even if he 
did belong to the same secret sworn brotherhood as the gov- 
ernor, who is his accessory ! " The people of the frontier " are 
never hostile to a man for killing even a mere burglar, or incen- 
diary, or horse thief, or " member of the bar," or any other 
blackleg thief, no matter what his title may be, or whether he 
parades the Bible through the streets and wears for a blind 
emblems of honest toil. 

And the more such " violent crimes " are meted out to 
such vampires, the better do the people like it ; because the 
courts being so prostituted, this is often their only recourse to 
hold what they have honestly earned, and they would rather 
kill vampires than for them to picnic in their ruins. It is only 
members of the gang that are hostile to their entire extinction. 

And by the laws of Moses, a man is justified in killing them 
even when they are only " breaking in at the gate^' unarmed, and 
only to steal ! 

By considering the courts as gateways to the homes and 
property, and even the liberty and justice of the people : how 
many midnight blacklegs are there on the frontiers, who " are 
breaking in through these gates,'' (whose guards are prostituted 
and drunk with plunder) to rob and pillage, to ravage, mur- 
der, torture, deceive and defame ! that they may picnic in the 
ruins and gloat over the misery of their victims ? 

Not by the laws of Moses only, but by the spirit of all 
criminal laws from Mount Sinai to the Seatco hell, honestly 
meted out, and by the rights of man to hold and enjoy his own, 
such vampires should die. 

By the Egyptian law : " To see a man struggling for his 
life with an assassin and to fail to assist him, was a capital crime." 

There are thousands of men in secret prisons struggling 
tvith a^'isa^ssins and their aca'ssories as you are reading this; and 
will you, my felloiv-man, do nothing to assist them ? 



My EEI.EASE. 379 



It is when these vampires and gallinippers — reekinf^ with 
crime and desolation — are set free, protected, or sanctioned by 
their secret brethren, in office and out, that the people do and 
should " visit their extremest indignation." 

For example : — When the ex-Governor applied for office by 
the votes of the people, he got only one vote in the four coun- 
ties wherein my case was best known. And later, when he 
was nominated by another ring governor as one of the trustees 
of the insane asylum, he Avas rejected by all hut tivo votes, while 
the other nominees were confirmed by the Legislature. 

^^ January 2nd, 1884. — J. H. . iDardoned ; had served twenty months 
on ioMX years for grand larceny and forgery, had no petition whatever, as 
far as any of us can learn — secret influence. P. S. — He steals .^20 from a 
trunk, and is next heard of in a hospital at Portland, down with snakes in 
his boots. 

'^ February 13th. — Governor [Links] here; I complained to him of the 
refusal of the warden to mail my epitome to be published, as I had com- 
plained before, "and that I Avas prevented from attending to my most 
vital business;" he rephed, that "he (himself) had not killed a man," and 
that "I did not manifest any sympathy for the man I killed." I replied, 
that " were I killed in the act of murdering a man to rub liim, I would not 
be entitled to any sympathy and would not get any." But he manifestly 
holds, that it is no crime for one of his gang to murder, rob and ravish, 
for he has never had a word to say against his conduct, not a word. Nor 
has the warden (another secret brother) who has likewise insinuated that I 
should join in hiding the crime, and revere the name of his brother 
villain. No wonder that the worst characters that come here mean to join 
the gang on their release." 

" February 14th.— R . . gets a windfall of $20,000. There was no fool- 
ishness about his getting his short time, which was almost due. He had 
killed a man in a saloon and got one year." 

I thought I would discover whether the Government at 
Washington, which the people so blindly elect, cared as much 
for a distressed and ravaged home-builder in his own country, as it 
does for some blackleg free-mason or odd-fellow in trouble in 
a foreign land. 

"Seatco Prison, Wash. Terkitoey, February 25th, 1884. 
His Excellency, President Arthur, and the Congress of the United States: — 
Is there any recourse for a Aictim falsely and cruelly imprisoned here, 
and when it has and can be shown beyond disjjute or refutation that there 
never was the shadow of any true case of cxime against me ? It being in 
truth as strong a case of self-defense as ever went to trial — that of defend- 



380 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

ing my life on my own hard-earned home against a most damnable and 
furious assault to murder for plunder and ravage ; hunting me while 
peacefully at work, with a cocked carbine in both hands, and firing the 
fii'st shot, Anth an abundance of indisputable proof —both, personal and cir- 
cumstantial to verify the same, with verified statements, jietitions, vouch- 
ers, etc., etc., constituting the strongest claim for justice and clemency 
ever filed in the Territory — including that of my neighbors almost unani- 
mously, four judges on the bench, and a goodly portion of the jury that 
aided in shanghaiing me, and all in vain. 

That to despoil me of my fortune and work my destruction, I have 
been thus imprisoned five and a half years, wrecking my health, ravaging 
my home, sucking my heart's blood. 

That by honorable toil and conduct I heljied to build this country, 
and therefore have a right to protection against the sharks and cut-throats 
— who are so powerful here — and my children to their rightful heritage on 
which they were born. 

That the Legislature here ai^pointed a committee to investigate my 
case, biTt it failed to report the crime done against me, or to accord me a 
hearing. Therefore, I hereby appeal to your Excellency and to Congress 
for Buch relief as is found to be just. 

I can be found as an old settler on the records of the land department 
for the Walla Walla district ; and our delegate knows enough of my case 
to vouch for me if he is so minded, as well as others there." 

[I concluded with Judge Wingard's recommendation.] 

I had to send this out " underground," and I never learned 
whether it was lost before it was mailed, or was squelched at 
Washington. However, little or nothing was to be expected to 
be done against the gang by an administration that appoints 
only members of the same to ofl&ce, as will, further on, more 
plainly appear. A foreign subject in distress might get some 
attention ; but a full-fledged, native-born, homebuilding citizen 
is — like the Savior— without friends or protection in his own 
country. 

Know ye, therefore, that if ever you have occasion to 
become acquainted with our Government, you will find to your 
sorrow and dismay, that it is rotten with practical masonry, 
reeking with corruption, and is against the people, and will con- 
clude, that unless members of secret-sworn brotherhoods are 
excluded from oflice, this boasted government "of the people" 
will sink in its own iniquity and perish from the earth. 

''March 12th, 1884. — Governor [Links] here; I i^ressed him f or a reason 
for holding me in spite of the Judge's recommendation, etc. ; he replied, 



My Release. 381 



tliat that document "amounted to nothing with him, but that five words 
from the Judge — that he had omitted — would have released me long ago, 
and it'ould now." I asked him "to name the necessary five words," and 
he replied, the form should be, " I hereby recommend France's jjardon. " 

I thought it -very singular that the Judge had not sense 
enough to properly commend one man to another's favor, and 
when so many experienced and competent men had declared it 
to be a "very strong recommendation," and that it should take 
the governor only nine (9) months to hatch out the only 
"proper" form for a Judge to express his opinion, and discover 
another false pretext for his own conduct. 

Nevertheless I sent the following telegram to the Judge : 

' ' Seatco, ThuTvSTON Co. , Wash. Teekitort, March 13th, 1884 
Hox. S. C. WiNGAED, WaUa Walla, W. T. : 

The Governor takes exception to the form of your recommendation, 
and says the following five words would be effective : "I hereby recom- 
mend France's pardon. " Will your Honor kindly comply ? 

Geo. W. France." 

'^ March 26th.^-'Dociox here ; says " the Governor had received a letter 
from the Judge in my behalf, but knew nothing more as to the matter." 

"April 5lh, 1884. — The Governor with the other i^rison commissioners 
here ; the Governor said he " had received a letter from Judge Wmgard 
in my behalf, about the same as the other," and that he " loould see me 
privately! before he left." But he did not do so at all. 

I waited nearly two months, and not getting even a pretext, 

I sent the following note by the Doctor to his father — the 

Governor. 

"Seatco, May 9th, 1884. 
His Excellency, Wm. A. [Links] : 

Dear Sir : — IMy most \-ital affairs are in a very sad and critical con- 
dition, and if you hold me longer in prison, ruin and destruction -n-ill be, 
as it has been, the result, and wliich will be on your head ; as you well 
know this to be all unjust, cruel and wicked against me. I would never be 
as cruel and inhuman to even a brute. You should also consider that had 
you made known to me at the outset your determination to hold me, right 
or wrong, and against all the ijidispiifuhle Irn/h thai liaa been shown and done 
in my behalf, that I could and would have been free to do right, and hai)2)y 
with my family at home, years ago, by other courts. But you jiromised 
other^^-ise, and I trusted to your honor. 

As I have never lied to you or any one else concerning my case, which 
during all the.se years of trial and torture you must know to be the truth, 
therefore, -svill you please concede to believe me now and act, when I 
l^romise and swear it to be better to permit me to save and care for the re- 



382 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 



maining Avi-eck of my home and family, -wliich demands my immediate 
presence, than to cause such ruin and destruction as your Excellency even 
would regret and recall. I earnestly request an early and definite reply. 

Very respectfully, Geo. W. Fkance." 

"Mai/ 20th. — Governor Links here, but he avoided seeing me." 
''June 9th, 1884. — K. . pardoned ; served one year on his two year's 
sentence, and by his word was an old and most constant criminal and 
would be again, had been arrested many times, and the people were 
" clamorous " against him — more masonry." 

June 12th. — Doctor and Governor Links here — and I inter- 
viewed the gentleman. I asked him if he had heard from the 
Judge in reply to my telegram, and he said he had ; but that 
he had written to him "hlunt, crabhid and insulting!" — so he 
did! "Had 7iot recommended me," and that he [the Judge] "did 
not loant to he bothered anymore about it.^' 

The Governor did not question the truth of my telegram at 
all; but asked if I " would do the same deed again? " I replied 
that "I did not see how I could avoid it under the same 
circumstances, and save my own life, as my pistol did this sure- 
ly." Yet, he said that I " did wrong to ever carry arms at all." 

[3IarJi, that he had never a word, and oiever had, against 
Jumper's hunting to kill me with a carbine, which he held was 

WRONG to repel I 

How is that for equal rights and even the right to live, when 
in the way of the gang! 

They want to drive the people into as defenceless a con- 
dition as the following victim ; so they can pluck and murder 
them luithout arty danger to themselves. 

"Dr. Bones, of Missoula, was decoyed by a fellow into the confession 
that he didn't carry a shooting iron, and then the [odd] fellow jjoked a 
revolver under his nose and made him hold up his hands while he went- 
through him to the tune of ^60.] 

Then I asked his Excellency, "what more he now 
required?" When he (passed the Judge, so I would not 
"bother" him anymore, and thus get his Excellency "insulted" 
again, as the Judge was getting more "offensive" to him than I 
was !) and said, that I " should have some of the Jury." Why! 
I said: "you have already got that." And as he could not 
think of any other excuse, he ended the interview. Then the 
Doctor came to me and declared that '" he was doing all he could 



My Kelease. 383 



former "Will he let me go?" I asked: "Yes I" he said, 
and theu he "didn't know." 

On the same day R . . was pardoned ; had served eighteen 
months and ten days on a sentence of two and a half years lor 
robbery. He had been on bread and water several times for 
bad conduct, had several fights and was shot and wounded in 
an attempt to run away ; whereupon a prisoner who could not 
get even his short time due him hy laio, became "hostile" 
indeed, and threatened, loith quivering lips, to vivisect Ms Excel- 
lency. Another who had been led to expect a pardon, was 
given a siege of bread and water for telling him he was a 
"damned liar," [and so he was]. 

It is reported that governor Links is to be removed soon, 
and the prisoners are earnestly praying that the report is true; 
it is conceded, that he is even worse than the other, and that a 
change must he for the better." 

While the governor did not want me to bother the Judge 
anymore about such a trifling matter to him as my liberty and 
life, and desired me to "keep very still and serene,'' while he 
tormented and prodded me to death, / was inclined to bother 
the Judge ywsi as long as I could get him to bother the Governor ^ 
or his successor, if he did " offend and insult them." 

Begging and praying to God and man (or devil) as ardently 

as a just cause could inspire, had been a sorry, agonizing 

failure, so I was not serene, and as I was to suffer on, I would 

also struggle on, with at least protests on my lips and curses in 

my heart. 

" Seatco, Juue 29tli, 1884. 

Hon. S. C. Wingakd : 

Deak Sib : — The Governor asserts that you have not and Avill not 
recommend my pardon, and that "yon do not want to be hothei-ed about 
it." 

But this is a serioiis and vital matter and not a mere question of 
" bother " or of etiquette, but of right and jiiittice. And I am still so 
cnielly and fraudulently held, and even the "Jive years " assurance vio- 
lated. 

I was hunted and foimd, when attacked, possessed of a $25,000 plant 
and fortune honestly earned, with my family I idoUzed, and a character 
unblemished ; was peacefully at work on my own hard-earned home, and 
so cautious of doing wrong that I was acting under the instructions of a 
peace officer. 



384 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

No one lias ever pretended in my liearing, that I was liiinted and at- 
tacked for any other isurpose than to murder me for the fruits of my toil. 
Nor can any one truthfully deny that I was prosecuted, sold, shanghaied, 
and am yet held for this same criminal purpose, and to sanction the 
Climes done against me. For this is a fact well nigh accomi^lished, and 
declaring itself. With my course of hfe and associations, how could I 
know the character and purjjose of the blackleg monsters whom you had 
licensed to practice in your own court, and in whom you kequibe their vic- 
tims to trust for justice without any recourse. And with your knowledge 
and experience, how could you fail to see that my case was not presented, 
2^le<ul or argued, nor half of my proof used ; but managed away or against 
me, or squelched ? Yet I was entitled to both a speedy and a fair trial, 
even if it would be some ^^ bother," better that, than murder and ravage. 

I did nothing but defend my life and home, and with big odds against 
me, as you must know ; and unless it can be shown that I deserved to die 
there, it cannot be justly held that I should die a more horrible death here. 
And I resi^ectfully submit whether it would not be in a right sense of 
justice and humanUy for you to " bother'" yourself enough to stay this foul 
and murderous opi^ression ? and more certainly so as it is done in your 
name ; and I will ever be grateful, and also to hear from you direct. Is 
there any way for me to have a trial or a respectful hearing, or anything 
but hell ? Why am I discriminated against ? Was the life and motive of 
the assassin with his carbine so much better than mine ? Did you receive 
a telegram from me ? Very respectfully, Geo. W. Fkance." 

A few days after tliis W. C. [Mason] was appointed 
Governor. 

From the Press : 

"W. C. [Mason] succeeds the GAiiLXNippEK. " 

' ' The wii'es bring us the welcome intelligence that the President has 
at last ai:)pointed a successor to the man from New Jersey, who has dis- 
graced the executive chair of Washington Territoiy 

We freely and thankfully bid adieu to the New Jersey GaUinipper. Bill, 
Ta-ta." 

"General T. . . returned home on Friday from a visit to the East 

He did not come back with a commission in his pocket, but we would in- 
finitely prefer seeing him ajipointed to a good office, than some of the 
scalawags who have lately and in the jmst been foisted upon our unfortun- 
ate Territory, for no other purpose than to get rid of them at home." 

"Governor [Links], the cari^et-bag executive that presides over the 
destinies of Washington Tenitory, is the most unpopular officer that has 
ever been appointed to govern that most afflicted part of the North-west. 
Every useless and designing politician, who can no longer benefit his party 
in his own State, is exiled by the administration to poor, oiijjressed 
Washington. 

Of all the irrespousibles [Links] is the weakest and worst 



My Kelease. 385 



"Wliere lie is best kuowu [Links] is regarded as a fraud, aud is charged 
■with iucuniug debts vhich he cannot hciuidate. From a gentleman at 
Tacoma he borrowed $500, bnt failed to settle at the appointed time aud 
for a long time thereafter, aud it was only by a threat of arrest that the 
debtor compromised by a payment of $300. The people of Washington 
do not want [Links] for any position, aud the sooner he is removed and 
his successor appointed the greater mU be their rejoicement." 

"An alleged forgery. — A bill of equity has been filed in the clerk's 
office of the Second Judicial District at Olymjua by the prosecuting at- 
torney, against the territorial auditor and treasurer. The bill sets forih 
that the last Legislature j^assed an act, api^ro lariating $30,000 a year, for 
two years, to defray expenses of the Territorial Insane Asylum, and that 
the said act was in some measure aud by some jjerson unknown altered 
and forged, before reaching the Governor, so as to ajjproin'iate the sum of 

$33,500, aud that the Governor signed the forged bill, being 

wholly unaware of the change and increase of the amount ai^iiroj^riated . . 

Of course, our dear, innocent, old Governor would not be 

guilty of forgery — any quicker than he would drink a glass of whiskey, 
while preaching on temperance. " 

"For twenty -five years the parties have made political 
hospitals of the territories for broken down hacks, schemers 
and bummers. It is doubtful which have given us more trouble 
— these or hostile Indians. We desire that further marauding 
of our interests should cease." 

"Walla Walla, W. T., July 7th, 1884. 
Mr. Geo. W, France. 

Sik: — I have just received your letter of the 29th of June, postmarked 
July 4th. [It is a wonder they sent it at all, in spite of its being stamped 
and marked to register.] I did get your dispatch and enclosed it to the 
Governor with a letter. He rephed, in substance, that you do not state 
the whole truth — that ' he has had more trouble with you, than all the 
men in the penitentiary,' and much more, which I shall not write. 

I shall probably see the new Governor next week, and, if I do, I shall 
represent your case to him, as I have already done to Governor [Links]. 

I would like you to understand, that Ihave done more for yon, than I 
have ever done, or am likely to do again for any one in prison. 

Yet, you are continually comi)laiuing, as if / had caiised yoiir mis- 
fortune, or had been your attorney, or the Grand and Petit Juries that 
indicted and convicted you. 

Because of the facts in your case I think five years imprisonment 
sufficient and have repeatedly said so. But I can't jiardon you, aud you 
know it, and it is not my business to solicit pardons. 

^Respectfully yours, etc., S. C. Winqakd." 

25 



386 Extracts from Dliry Kept in Prison. 

[I answered this binder date of November 23rd, 1884. ^ 

Aug. 14th, 1884. — "Governor [Mason] arrived in Olympia." 

The inmates of the insane asylum and of this prison were 
vitally interested as to the kind of a man the new Governor 
would be, as the management and control of both prisons 
needed to be exposed to the light of day and of heaven, by a 
rigid and public investigation, and justice meted out to the 
midnight gentlemen in control. 

In discussing the new Governor's character, some held 
that as he had an ample fortune (which he had never earned) 
he would be really the Governor, above bribery and just to all. 
And that as he had lived in the country a few months — off and 
on — and owned some land, he might have some little practical 
knowledge of common affairs and some sense and feeling of 
justice as to the common people ; and delared that " anyway we 
had all to gain and nothing desirable to lose by the change." 

While others maintained that he was a Free-Mason — and a 
haughty one — and cared nothing for outsiders, or the common 
people, except as beasts of burden to ride on and give him 
power and glory, and that he would be as much in the gang 
and a tool of it, as though he was as poor as his predecessor. 

The brethren of the masonic press got right down and 
worshipped him as a true and living God; as they had generally 
done to his piedecessor while he was the rising sun of the mid- 
night rings. 

" August 24th, 1884. — I wrote to Governor [Mason] giving 
him a sj'nopsis of the papers he should find on file in my be- 
half, and requested that he would carefully examine them, and 
if anything was lacking to justify my release, to inform me 
accordingly. 

" September 28th. — Received the following letter from 

Judge Wingard : 

"Oltmpia, W. T., September 26tb, 1884. 

Geo. W. France. 

Dear Sir: — I have been here attending a session of the Supreme 
Court. 

I have laid your case before Governor [Mason], and while I do not 
know what action he may be disposed to take in the matter, I think he 
may look favorably upon the question of your release. 

Respectfully yours, S. C. Wingard." 



My Eelease. 387 



Ocfohcr 3r<f, hS!S4. — Governor [Mason] called the first time; 
said that "the papers of his office were only turned over to him 
three days before and he had not looked at them yet; but 
would do so on his return and investigate and act on my case 
"the /?/'.s^ o?ie;" that he "had a very strong letter from Judge 
Wingard in my behalf — that he said, "/je should have given me a 
neio trial,"— here another prisoner spoke up saying, that "he 
had three petitions," etc., to which the new Governor replied, 
that " what the Judge has done for Mr. France is better than a 
thousand petitions, and I will attend to his case i\xe first one." 

But he said "we have a good judiciary! " Then I asked 
him to promise that " if anyone opposed my release he would 
inform me who they were and give me a fair chance to meet 
any objection," to which he agreed, and " would tell me as a 
secret that no one was opposing it but Governor [^Linhs^: that 
"he ivas afraid of me should I be released, and therefore opposed it." 
"Does he say that I ever threatened him in any way?" I 
asked. No, no ! he says you have not, but thinks that you 
naturally ivould ,be revengeful and dangerous if released." 
" Would you be influenced against me by such characters and 
interested enemies as yon, hioio Links and these contractors to 
be ? " " No, no ! certainly not ! " said he, "and I will write to the 
Judge for further information and will act on your case the 
p'st one." "I believe your conduct has always been good 
here?" "Yes sir," said I, "but these devils of contractors 
and Links will stab men in the back any way they can to keep 
them here, so just liave them face me in the matter and we will 
settle that right now; if they deny it, I will establish it beyond 
dispute in spite of them ! " " Never mind that," said he, " for 
I am scdisfied that your conduct has always been good." He 
shook hands in a manner to emphasize his earnestness and 
sincere feelings and departed, saying, he would " be back again 
very soon," 

So now they had held on to me, and tormented and ravaged 
me, till they virtually confessed that they deserved to die at 
my hands ; and it was tlieir conduct and guilt thcd told them so. 
They knew that I never harmed the innocent and would kill 
nothing but a midnight devil of a robber-assassin, and such 
only in self-defence. But with the misery and ravage and 



388 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

destruction they had wrought, staring them in the face, and 
haunting them in their dreams, no wonder tliey coivered to meet 
their victims on a common level. 

" For whence, dull reas'ner, can a fear arise, 
Lest peace and plenty gild the path of vice ; 
Think'st thou that he whom conscience racks within 
Can escape the vengeance that awaits on sin? 
Whilst shuddering memory, by guilt oppress'd, 
Plants her blood-thirsty daggers in his breast ; 
Shakes her dread arrows with vindictive ire 
And damns the trembler to eternal fire. 
Eire, where infernal furies fan the flame. 
Which hopes ne'er soften, and which years ne'er tame; 
Not all the tortures of afflictive steel. 
Which law can sanction, or which sense can feel. 
Thrill thro' the tortured frame with half the smart, 
As crimes unpardoned through the guilty heart. 
His sickening conscience loaths the odioiis light, 
Each fear returning with returning night ; 
Whilst terror wears his tedious hours away, 
Himself the accuser, and himself the prey. 
This is tlie guilty ivretch, whose conscious soul 
Shrinks back with terror, e'er the thunders roll. 
And turns pale and trembles at the electric light. 

Say, if such woes on luckless guilt attend. 

What grief shall rack that wretch the fates befriend ; 

Eternal terrors — while the loathsome food 

Cloys his pall'd taste, and taints his meagre blood ; 

No more rich wines allay his tort'ring pain, 

Cool his parched lip or calm his whirling brain. 

Not all the sweets prolific gaul can yield, 

Nor all the products of the Iberian field 

Can bribe his soul to quaff the luscious draught, 

Or drown in wine the racking pang of thought. 

Eternal clouds hang low'ring on his brow. 

And mighty horrors aim the vengeful blow ; 

Should balmy sleep allay his tortured breast, 

Eor one short moment in oblivious rest, 



My Kelease. 389 



Swift to his thought, the fane where late he trod, 
The insulted altar of his injured God, 
And thy dread form gigantic meet his view, 
Guilt swells the form his frenzied memory drew ; 
Till tortur'd nature triumphs over pride, 
His fears confessing lohat his tongue denied. 

For q.uick and restless is each sinful breast, 

By hopes transported, or by fears opprest ; 

Tho' bold in acting, yet they find in time, 

That guilt strikes home, and punishes the crime. 

Again to sin and sorrow they recur, 

The path of vice still widening as they err ; 

For who that once has lost his heavenly guide, 

Ere stopped the torrent of overwhelming pride ! 

Or sense of shame once banished by disgrace, 

Relum'd the blush of virtue in his face ? 

Guilt leads to guilt, possession wakes desire, 

And treach'rous fortune fans the rising fire ; 

Each crime unpunished prompts a thousand more, 

Till habit leads, where passion swayed before. 

The wretch who late his sacred trust betrayed, 

With blood e'er long shall stain his murderous blade, 

Overturn his country, or'with trait'rous art 

Aim the dark dagger at the patriot's heart ; 

Till injured justice lift her iron rod 

And vengeance thund'ring from the throne of God, 

Give to Hell's op'ning jaws their destined prey. 

And siveejj the monster from the face of day; 

Unpitied shall he fall, without a friend. 

His life detested, and accurs'd his end, 

And thou, proud mortal, whose imperious soul 

Would teach eternal thunders where to roll, 

Shalt see that God, who marks each latent ill. 

Can spare alike, or punish where he will ; 

And trembling own, whilst humbled in the dust. 

That man is impious, but that God is just. ' 

W— S— " 
And their knowing that to increase the oppession, likewis 



390 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

increased tlieir guilt, and would consequently, in the end, but 
increase their danger ; they therefore evidently intended for me 
to die in prison, so that I could neither expose or kill them for 
their torturing crimes. And I considered it to be necessary to 
guard against being poisoned by such guilty-minded cowards. 
No linked member of secret intrigue should ever he suffered to deal 
out doses to victims of their gang. 

Mark and reflect, how this linked prince would still be 
Governor — and he tvas — hozv the secret clans affiliate in prostituting 
the Government against the people. 

"Se.ytco, Thurston Co., W. T., November 23rd, 1884. 
Hon. S. C. Wingard: 

Dear Sir : — I gratefully received your letter from Olympia, 
as well as the one previously ; as to which I will say, that I told 
you the truth as I have always done. 

I did neither misconstrue Governor Link's words nor his 
meaning— that is supposing him to mean what he said— that 
"the five words" as given you "from you would release me." 

As to your letter to him in reply, he gave me as his reason 
for not honoring it — not such as he did you — but that it was 
''short, crabbid and insulting'' and " no recommendation." Nor 
did he question its truth as to my part — not at all. 

It, however, gave me some consolation to know that it was 
not only his defenseless, suflfering victims — honestly struggling 
as does the lamb with the wolf, the fly with the spider and the 
bird with the snake! — who "insults," "offends" or troubles 
his Excellency as he gloats over the mangled remains of his 
victims. 

And he gave as his reason for holding me, to my people in 
the States, that " my case was an aggravated one and you was 
satisfied with my sentence." 

I give you this as a mere sample, or glimpse of the stabbing 
in the back and in the dark I have to endure, and the character 
of the influence practised against me. The same that tried to 
murder me at home, and succeeded in shanghaiing and selling 
me to accomplish their hellish ravages. Of course, so long as 
such blacklegs have influence at court, and honorable men and 
modes are spumed, there is no assurance for me. And it was a 



My Kelease. 391 



sorry day for me when I trusted in the merits and justice of my 
cause — though it was never excelled— for justice and vindica- 
tion at such courts. 

Governor [Mason] was here about seven weeks ago ; said 
he had a letter from you in my behalf, and would write to you 
for further information. I had hoped that you would conclude 
the matter while at Olympia, but I suppose I must suffer and 
not complain. 

Very Respectfully, 

Geo. W. France." 

"Walla Walla, W. T., December 7th, 1884. 
George W. Fkance : 

Dear Sir : — Your registered letter of 23rd ult. received on my return 
home. In reply I "will say, that after I wrote to you from Olympia last 
Sejitember, I received a letter from Governor [Mason] saying, in substance, 
that ec-Governor [Links] oi)i}osed your jiardon on the ground that you 
had offended him in some Avay, and had not behaved well, etc. Governor 
Mason said he would look into the matter further, and hoped he could 
com lily with my opinion that you had been in prison long enough. I have 
heard nothing from him since. If I could let you out I would. 

Yours, etc., S. C. Wingard." 

" December 10th, 1884. — It is reported that during a recent 
visit to Olympia Judge Wingard had a quarrel with Links 
about his conduct towards me, and that during which the Judge 
declared he " would never send another man to this prison that he 
could possibly avoid," etc. Some are discussing the matter and 
will watch the court proceedings closely, and see whether he 
does or not. 

"December 17th, 1884. — Governor [Mason] started to the 
States, and without coming here. This is how ' he looked into 
my case further.' " 

"January 12th, 1885. — Dr. Links, jr., here ; he denies ^w.9/- 
tively that his father has opposed or is opposed to my release, 
declaring that " he knoios " and will sivear to it, and that " Gov- 
ernor Mason only says so for an excuse." Also, that "my con- 
duct has not been bad and that I have not offended his father." 

If the common people knew the real characters of those 
they are led to support for office, and knew the main spring of 
their official actions, when they get there, instead of thus being 
enslaved by the prostitution of their own government, they 



392 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

would raze to the ground every den of the lying robber clans in the 
country. 

"January 16th, 1885. — G. . and "W. . came here from Day- 
ton ; and say that " the people think it is an outrage that I was 
sent or held here at all, when it was so plain that I only de- 
fended my life," and that Judge Wingard had said on the 
streets that " had he known I would be held more than a year 
or two he would not have sent me at all. " 

" I see in the papers that Governor Mason will visit Wash- 
ington and also New Orleans before his return — he thus picnics 
while his victims languish." 

" March 14th. — See that the Secretary, as acting Governor, 
has pardoned a man out of jail. And also that the Governor 
will soon return." 

" January 26th, 1885. — Been very sick for the last two weeks 
and over." 

" But he who fails and yet still fights on, 
Lo, he is the twin horn brother of mine. " 

So I wrote the following letter : 

' ' Se/tco, Wash. Tekkitoky, March 28tli, 1885. 
His Excellency, Governor [Mason] : 

Sir : — I am impeUetl by my distress to remind your Excellency of the 
cruel "WTong yoii are doing me and mine by prolonging my imprisonment. 
Although you are in the enjoyment of good fortune, luxiu-y and 
power, I implore you not to thus desisise all that is honorable, just 
and humane, because it be unfortunate and hunted down. You 
have showings, references and proofs conclusive to unprejudiced men, 
of my innocence o£ any crime, and of my character where I worked 
so hard and prospered so weD, till attacked by the blood-thirsty 
assassin and robbers— to which you have failed to even question, as in- 
vited to do. Therefore, you are presumed to know the cruel injustice you 
are inflicting, and that I am not a har. I hope you are not so heartless as 
to enjoy the pay and the misery there is in it ; but icliy do you allow it to 
continue till all my well-earned fortune and good health and most sacred, 
devoted ties— all that is worth living for — is ravaged and consumed in the 
flames of violence, avaiice, and a damnable revenge, and all for irhat? 
Because I Avould face and defend my hfe against the flaming fire and lead 
of the robber-assassin on my own devoted altar. 

' Woe be unto him who calls good evil and evil good,' and who, while 
extnlinf/ (Htsassi/itiHon and rapine, spurns and stamps homely, friendless vir- 
tue in the dust. 

Judge Wingard says, that ' had he known I would not be presently re- 



My Kelease. 393 



stored, lie would not have sent me here, and that if he could let me go he 
would do so.' Are you not, therefore, taking undue advantage of the 
court's mere technical sentence, which itsiclf rejects, and its ignorance aa to the 
executive character, to comjilete my ruin ? 

If your Excellency will not let me go, will you please grant me the 
favor to so answer and inform me, to answer the questions and i)oiuts in 
my argument and plea (epitome) heretofore submitted, and to deliver to 
me all the papers and letters received by the Governor in my behalf? 

Kespectf ully yours, Geo. W. France. " 

*^ June '114, i(§S5.— Received letter from I. J. T.; he, iu con- 
junction with H. A. and others, propose to get up monster 
petitions for my release ; says 'about everybody in my three 
counties would gladly sign them;' he will write to the Governor 
to find out what more is necessary to be shown or done to 
secure my release." 

" July 4th. — Received the following letter from I. J. T.: 

"PoMEROY, W. T., July 1st, 1885. 
Mr. George W. France : 

Dear Sir : — I saw Mr. H. A . . and had a talk with him on jietitions, 
etc. ; he will attend to the business in that county ; he is a strong friend of 
yours and a fine man too, and will work Avith lis to get you out to again 

breathe the free air of Heaven You will jjlease get a 

certificate of the prison warden showing your good beha-vior since you 
were there. It will have weight Avith the Governor. I wrote to the Gov- 
ernor but have not heard from him yet. We ■will give the matter a thorough 
effort, and use all the means in our power for your release for the reason 
that you ought to be out. I always maintained that you were unjustly in- 
carcerated, and that it was done by chicanery, and hope we will soon see 
you here again. I heard a disinterested party say that he was positive that 
McK . . swore to a lie which went far towards putting you in jirison. 

We will work this matter with a determination not to fail, though 
perhaps if / were in prison no one would try to get me out, but they 
might. But I want justice done, and justice demands your release loudly. 

The M . . gang will, of course, work against the matter, but 

Judge Wingard knows and has called them pei-jured publicly, and they 
will get 11"! quarter at his hands I. J. T . . . " 

I pointed out to the warden the paragraph of the letter re- 
questing a certificate of my good behavior and requested him 
to fill the bill, to which he replied, that " it would do no good 
for him to do so, as that was S . . 's place (S . . was superintend- 
ent then) and that he should do so." To which I replied, " j'ou 
know that S. . will not help ani/one out by certifying to his good 



394 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

conduct." "But," the warden replied, "it is Lis place to do 
it, and he ougJit to do so for you, I can't." Therefore I deter- 
mined to establish the fact in spite of them, and a fellow- 
prisoner wrote out the following certificate, and was more or 
less joined by all the rest, as follows : 

"Seatco Pbison, Wash. Teekitoey, July 6th, A.D., 1885. 
We, the undersigned, do hereby certify, that to our personal knowledge 
during our acquaintance as fellow-prisoners, and on information and be- 
lief as to the remainder of the time of George W. France's incarceration, 
that said France's conduct as a jjrisoner has been unexceptionally good, 
or equal to the best of the prisoners, and will bear a most rigid examina- 
tion, 'wJticJi he solicits. F. E. Steong, 

ex-Sheriff and Assessor of Wah Kiacum Co. , W. T. 



" llie Signatures attached to the foregoing certificate constitute all of the 
prisoners, except one Chinaman, two Indians, one looiyian, and (8) others, who 
acquiesce in its truthfulness, and if summoned, ^inll testify to the same." 

Oath. 
" We do solemnly swear that the foregoing certificate and statem£nt is true, 
as we verily believe. So help us God. 

Feed. E. Steong, 
A. J. Vincent, 
Geo. W. Feance." 

Teeeitoey of Washington, County of Thubston. 
Personally aj^peared before me this IJrth day of July, A. D. 1885, 
Fred. E. Strong, A. J. Yincent and Geo. W France, who are personally 
known to me, and subscribed and swore to the foregoing oath. 

Given under my hand and seal this lith day of July, A. D. 1885. 

(Seal.) G. S. Peince, Notary Public." 

The eight (8) prisoners who did not sign felt it to be im- 
prudent — as their cases stood — for them to thus enrage the 
gang against them; although they would he glad io he put tinder 
oath and thus compelled (?) to testify in the matter. Of course, my 
position as warden of tlie hig hall, etc., would of itself been proof 
enough /or any holiest Governor. 

The only way I could get a notary to attend to this matter was 
by a strategy, or we, nearly all, would have sworn to it. It hap- 



My Keleask 395 



pened that I had at this time a power of attorney to be ac- 
knowledged ; so under the shadow of doing this, and using my 
friends Strong and Vincent as my witnesses to the same, we 
pushed the other matter through right in the shadow of the 
elevated ears, and in the snapping teeth of the superintendent, 
who, with others, was playing cards at a table close by. And 
when I blandly invited the gentleman to join my friends in the 
certificate, he brayed out in reply, " No, I wont ! " To which I 
replied, " that is what I had understood, and had, therefore, 
appealed to my friends to establish the fact beyond dispute or 
question.'' 

Now this notary manifested an earnest and kindly feeling, 
such as is very rarely enjoyed in such a circumstance, saying 
that I " had established the fact in spite of them," and was so 
pleased with my sand, that he refused to accept any pay for his 
services, another having charged me $6 for but a single ac- 
knowledgement. 

The next thing was to prevent the matter from being 
squelched, and the warden was so anxious to get it in his fingers 
that he said I might send the papers without their counting as 
letters, which were only allowed to be sent once a montli. 

So I wrote a brief of the certificate on the jMiver of attorney 
and registered it, also stating on it that I would forward the 
other to I. J. T . . with whom he was in correspondence, and so 
he got it. 

"PoMEKOY, W. T., July 26tli, 1885. 
Mr. Geo. W. Feance: 

Dear Sir: — I have not heard from you for a long time [as though it 
was 7711/ fault] I am in receii:)t of a letter from the Gov- 
ernor. He wants to have a talk with yoii before we get up more petitions 
and will then let us know whether this is necessary. 

I think the chances are favorable for your release, as it is left entirely 
to yourself, as your talk with the Governor will decide whether you get 
out or not. [ What deceitful, lying rot on one side, and stupid ignorance on the 
other. ] 

I have written to him very fully and referred him to several responsible 
men knowing you and your case, and I will write to him again. 

Hoping to hear from you at once, I am. Yours tnily, I. J. T." 

It was difficult to convince any one of the people that a 
victim was denied the right to attend to such vital business 



396 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

whenever necessary, and one would frequently liave several 
different business matters with as many different persons living 
and being in different sections of the country, each requiring 
him to write " at once" when he could only write one letter a 
month, and there was no security or assurance that it ivould go, 
except to send them out ** underground," and then it was difl&- 
cult to make one's friends understand that they must acknowl- 
edge its receipt by a simple mark or expression, and refer to it 
in no other way. For when detected it was used as a club or 
knife against the victim. 

This, that follows, is his Excellency's rot : 

"ExEcxTTiVE Office.— OiiTMPiA, W. T., July 22d, 1885. 
I. J. ToMLiNSON, Esq., Pomeroy, W. T. 

Deak Sik: — Replying to your letter of June 15tli, 1885, 1 desire to say 
that I liave tried to see Judge Wingard, when I visited the city of WaUa 
Walla, so as to converse with him concerning the case of Geo. W. France, 
but he was then absent from that city. 

However, I have conversed with him here Avithin the last few days, 
and, upon his advice, have concluded to have a talk with Mr. France as 
soon as I can visit the penitentiaiy. 

I do not think it would be my duty to pardon him, if he is likely to 
become a troublesome and dangerous man. 

[About all of the "troublesome and dangerous" men on the roads of 
the border were peaceable citizens, till thus persistently looted, goaded and 
driven to avenge themselves, by ring blacklegs in office who are a thousand 
times more " troublesome &ndi dangerous ^^ to good society; — they not only 
rob and murder men, but they rob and murder their government also. Had 
he (the Governor) been honest, he would have joined, or rather taken the 
lead in being " troublesome and dangerous" to the traitorous gang.'\ After 
seeing him I may wTite to you again, in case a jietition be contemplated by 
yoii. I do not vdsh you to go to the trouble of circulating a jietitiou, un- 
til I can see Mr. France and ascertain whether he is contrite or revengeful. 

Eespectfully, W. C. [Mason.]" 

"Contrite or revengeful," he says; "Contrite" for what? 
For defending my oion life against one of the gang ? Which 
shoAved that he belonged to the gang, and would justify and 
sanction their crimes at the expense of innocent blood, and 
ravage and dance on the graves of his victims. Look here ! 

From the Press. — " The Signal declared that Governor [Mason] at the 
G. A. R. Encampment proved himself a nimble figure in the dance. He 
out-lasted the mo.st enduring of our Yakima damsels and came up for the 
last "Waltz, at three o'clock in the morning, fresh as a daisy, although he 



My Release. 397 



had not missed a single opportunity to agitate liis foot during the night. . . 

He was a great soeker after partners, and for courtly grace and 

continuity, it would be difficult to find his equal." 

[Do such, as he, have any conscience ? To dance while his ^4ctims 
languish!] 

" But no^c my sword's my own, smile on my lords : 

" I scorn to count -what feelings, withered hopes, strong 
provocations, bitter burning wrongs, I have within my heart's 
hot cells shut up. To leave you in your lazy dignities. 

" But here I stand and scoff you ; here I fling hatred and 
full defiance in your face." Curse you ! 

''July 21st, 1885.— Doctor and ex-Governor [Links] here ; 
the Doctor declares that he and his father " have 'praised me to 
Governor [Mason] and favored my release, and that the Gov- 
ernor is favorable to it." 

" Seatco, Thueston Co., Wash. Ter., August 16th, 1885. 
Mr. I. J. T . : 

Dear Sir : — Yours of July 26th and 30th received, and I 
embraced the opportunity to reply. Governor [Mason] has not 
come around. But he could know my sentiments by examining 
them as set forth in my argument and plea (epitome) - on file 
at the executive office and addressed to the " Governor and the 
people at large." 

And if such sentiments, or the exercise thereof, is in viola- 
tion of any standard of law, or of good morals, or good citizen- 
ship, no one has claimed or pointed it out to me, in any partic- 
ular. Although I have begged them to do so, or to controvert 
its truth as to any point if they could, (and let me prove it again) 
and to " prescribe a bitter course and rule of life and conduct 
than I have exercised, when I would embrace it accordingly." 
But no point has been qicestioned or denied, or any other standard 
of conduct offered. 

So you see, dont you ! that the matter does not " rest with 
me " at all ? I have my part as well done as opportunity ac- 
corded me, and my distress would permit. Hence it rests on 
you, if you please, to proceed to the ccnisummation of your 
work there, and the pushing of the same to the end. 

And you and other friends can, with safety and propriety, 
guarantee my future conduct to be in accordance with the 



398 EXTBACTS FROM DiARY KePT IN PrISON. 

golden rule. And thus shatter the false reports and idle fan- 
cies hatched in the dark, to add to my misery, and which, if 
persisted in without rebuke, would drive even an angel to des- 
peration or the grave. When they cannot point to any word, 
act, or circumstance of my own, wherein they can justify any of 

their accusations, and do not pretend to to me 

Yours very truly, Geo. W. France." 

As to a mart's rights, even in a Kingdom. ^^ British Court.^' British 
Law and Subjects. English Gold Commissioner, at Kootenia, (Fisherville 
Camp). 

" If 7/0 II had shot him down [an tjnabmed trespasser) you could not have 
been hurt for it; for any English subject has a right to protect his oivn castle, 
and a miner's claim is his castle/^ 

He fined the trespasser (who had had the other arrested for assault) 
£25 for tresjjassing upon and molesting a subject on his own premises. " 
— Col. Hunter's Beminiscetices of an Old Timer. 

And yet this latter day Mason and Governor holds, that a 
full-fledged American citizen should be " contrite " for even de- 
fending his life on his hard-earned home against one of the 
secret gang shooting at him with a carbine ! That he was a 
tyrant, etc., will hereafter appear by the testimony of others 
also. 

'' August 18fh, 1885. — Court in my county (Judge Wingard) 
had seventeen (17) criminal cases ; there being many men here 
for long terms with weaker cases against them than the least of 
these seventeen ; yet, " the Judge strikes the criminal docket 
with a cyclone the first day," as a local paper expresses it, and 
they are all cleared." But 7 will do for an example (?) for them 
all. 

"September 11th, 1885.— Governor [Mason] is at Walla 
Walla picnicing at the fair. 

" September 19th. — Governor [Mason] and the other prison 
directors are here ; the Governor introduced one of them (an 
odd-felloiv) to me, asking me to show to him the papers I had 
from Judge Wingard, which I did ; he (the odd-fellow) 
" thought they were very strong,'' and said he would also exam- 
ine my papers at the Governor's office, but he wanted no fur- 
ther information from me. The Governor then gave me to 
understand that ho would let me go " when the Legislature 



My Eet^ase. 399 



met in December," aud that lie would have done so before but 
for objection being made that I "might be dangerous or trouble- 
some." But he refused to say to ivhom, or give me the ground 
of such objection, or by whom made, or what would refute or 
placate it. He did not want any information either, or to 
"have a talk'' as he had ivritten loas so impo7'tant. On leaving, 
he shook hands with me cordially (yet so falsely) saying and 
repeating it, that " he would be here again before the Legislature 
met," and intimated that he would let me go then. 

"Seatco, Wash. Teb., September 20th, 1885. 

Mr. I. J. T Governor [Mason] made a brief call 

here yesterday ; but as I intimated to you would be the case, it 
had little significance. He is not a frank man by any means, 
but reflects dark and hidden influences, which fears the scru- 
tiny of light. 

He would give me to understand that he will let me go 
when the Legislature meets in December 



Very Truly, 



Geo. W. France." 



I. J. T . . wrote as here to follow : 

" October 27th, 1885. 

We have waited patiently to hear from the Governor, 

but have not. And he advised me not to get up more petitions till I heard 
from him; and in him alone lays our hope of your release, so I deem it 
presumptuous to go contrary to his advice in the matter, but I Avill write 
to him again and lay the case in all its bearings before him. I. J. T. " 

And afterwards wrote: "I had several letters from the Governor, but 
he just jjKt me of, and I do not think that our efforts were of any use. 

I. J. T." 

" November 20th. — No Governor here yet. 

"A cunning man is never a firm man ; but an honest man 
is ; a double-minded man is always unstable ; a man of truth is 
firm as a rock. Be true. Don't be a sneak. Never undertake 
anything you are ashamed of, or ought to be ashamed of. 
When your cause is good, advocate it openly and manfully. 
Never burrow in the dark. If you do, rest assured your deeds 
will come to light and to j-our own confusion. Don't talk one 
way and act another. That is deception ; and a deceiver when 



400 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

lie is found out is always despised, as he should be. There is 
nothing more worthy of approval and esteem than a sincere, 
frank, honest and true man, whose words are the real repre- 
sentatives of his feelings, and who despises in his heart low, 
selfish cunning. Be a true man. Be frank, honest and sincere. 
Don't become a low, cunning trickster. Don't. It never pays 
in the outcome. 

Edward Irving." 

" November 29th. — See the following item in several 
papers : 

'^^ Petition for a pardon. — A petition is being circulated in Columbia 
County, W. T. , asking Gov. [Mason] to pardon George W. France, who, 
it will be remembered, killed [Links Jumjaer] a number of years ago near 
Peola over some land dispute. France has already served six years and is 
in very jjoor health. " 

One of the lawyer traitors, who done me up, had a close 
friend in the gang who published a paper that continually 
puffed the little shyster into notice, so that immigrants might 
fall within his grasp. Indeed, sometimes he edited the sheet 
himself ; and this to follow, is what it said : 

"Another effort is being made in Columbia County to secure a jiardon 
for George "W. France, the slayer of [Links Jumi^er]. He has been in the 
l^enitentiary six years and ought to remain there six years longer." 

[He evidently expected that I "would be troublesome " to 
him when I got out, as he had been to me in getting me in. 
And he left that section, going to one that was just filling with 
immigrants, to waylay them.] 

Such gentry are the jioiver heJiind the throne ; against the 
people, against truth and good faith, against all that is equal, 
just and fair and humane. Could anarchy be a worse con- 
dition ? 

*' The Walla Walla Journal in full recognition of all legal 
consequences, says that [the editor of the aforesaid sheet] is a 
-perjured scoundrel" etc., etc. 

December 7th, 1885. — "Legislature convened, and no Governor here 
since September 19th, or any information from him." 

In his message to the Legislature, the Governor says he 
" has granted no pardons, except as rebarte for good conduct." 



My Kelease. 401 



Has not a word to say about the injustice, corruptions and 
brutality of the contract bastile; or of the asylum; or the steal- 
ing by the gang of the University lands. Is pleased that "the 
Territory is an attractive field for the " legal profession " and 
favors their being encouraged and even turned out at the 
expense of the people, instead of showing how easy this swarm 
of vermin could be done away with by reforming the Judiciary, 
and how much better this would be. Gives the excuse of the 
territorial treasurer for paying out money without any warrant, 
on the ground that he " had conformed to the practice of 
former years." Favors a strong and " loyal " militia who will 
blindly obey their [masonic] commanders to protect the Chin- 
ese; while American citizens are afforded no protection against 
the robber clans, and when stripped of their property are in 
large numbers stigmatized as tramps and vagrants and driven 
out, with no " strong and loyal " militia to protect them, or 
Governor to plead their cause. 

A General of this militia was afterwards indicted eight (8) 
times for forgery and robbing a county treasury of over 
160,000 ; then the " charitable brethren " interfered with the 
" good Judiciary " which put off his case, while they railroaded 
through to prison a lot of outsiders, to be held there for 5, 7, 8, 
9, 10 and 14 years, for stealing a little grub, a few dollars, or a 
horse ! And the General of the loyal (?) militia has never been 
punished at all, but is picnicing with the plunder, and was 
billed to marshal a Fourth of July parade f 

From the ring Press, — "Doesn't affect the parade." — "There has been 
not a httle gossip in this city, since the indictments have been found 
against General [Mason] , as to the propriety of that gentleman leading the 
column in the great parade here on the Fourth of July. So frequent had 
the question been asked on the street, that the P. I. correspondent called 
uj^on the chairman of the [ring] committee on j^rogramme and asked him, 
if there had been any change in the arrangements ■with regard to General 
[Mason]. "Certainly not," said he, "Avhile there have been some ugly 
charges entered against General [Mason] , he has not been tried upon them 
or adjudged giiilty, and it is not for us to do one or the other in advance 
of the court." [Oh, how considerate with one of the gang.] "He is the 
Adjutant General of the militia of the Territory, and as such was iu\-ited 
to marshal the parade. He has accepted, and no other arrangement will 
be made, of course, so long as he signifies his willingness to serve by not 
resigning." 
26 



402 EXTEACTS FEOM DiARY KePT IN PeISON. 

[So the subjects of tlie secret governments desecrate and 
trail our flag in the dirt. Indeed, the time will come when 
such gentlemen will need a " strong and loyal" militia to guard 
their lives and plunder from the wrath and justice of the 
people whom they spurn, loot and shoot down. Think of a 
gang of such " loyal " (?) men shooting down unarmed citizens 
in the streets, as they did at Seattle, and talking about the 
" equal rights of men." He was made General and " billed to 
marshal the Fourth of July parade ! " Why then should other 
criminals reform ! when the courts and government are thus 
prostituted and virtue made a cringing slave to depravity or 
shot down in the streets and field ? And when this Governor, 
in violation of law, to protect masonic Chinamen, and his 
" loyal " militia who were being arrested foi' murder, and when 
good citizens could get no protection ; he formed a military 
commission " the most powerful court under military govern- 
ment " and detained this very General as Judge Advocate and 
Recorder of this extra " good Judiciary," to try and punish 
offenders against white and yellow Chinamen ! 

Jan, 5th, 188G. — "Eev. Parker here. Brouglit message to Mr. S. . . 
from members of the Legislature, that they ' would shake the swindle up 
and end the prison contract. ' " 

Jan. llh. — "No Legislatru'e or Governor here yet." 
I sent the following petition to the Legislature : 

" Seatco Peison, W. T , January 8th, 1886. 

I hereby respectfully and earnestly petition the Legislature 
to rigidly investigate my case and duress — according me a full 
and respectful hearing as to the same. 

I earnestly certify, that I have been unjustly, cruelly and 
corruptly held in prison for over seven (7) years, when it has 
and can be shown beyond dispute or refutation, that there 
never was even the shadow of any true case of crime against 
me, and having all the time an abundance of proof to so 
establish my case ; that I was shanghaied and not convicted, 
and every effort to make the fact known to the people has been 
squelched. That I have as worthy petitions and other show- 
ings as was ever filed at Olympia. That Judge Wingard, 
learning the injustice of my " conviction " (?) joined in urging 
my case repeatedly to the Governor — so that he declares he 



My Release. 403 



"has done more for my release than he ever before did for 
any man in prison," and that I "should have had a new trial." 
Please investigate, give me a hearing as to any point held 
against me, and take such action as is found to be just. 

Geo. W. France." 

JaH.mh-^^L . . and K. . . here from Dayton. Biing word that the 
county officials and "everybody " wiU sign my petition. 

Jaa 2.5/7..-" Priest here. Took petition of the prisoners to the 
Legislature to appoint the Chaplains, or other outsiders, as a commission 
to investigate and report to the Governor as to any prisoner's conduct; also 
to pass a one-third rebate law, Tike that of other States, for good conduct. 
ihe priest and the other visiting minister wiU favor the same " FN B — 
But they were ignored, because it would interfere ^^•ith the gang 1 

Febrrcary 1st '' Kev. Parker here from Olympia. Thinks the prison- 
ers ^siU be removed to Walla Walla in July, to utihze their labor in the 
building of a Territorial Prison that is provided for to be built there And 
also thinks and prays that Governor [Mason] wiU soon be removed." 

During the session of the Legislature, in discussing the 
Local Option Bill, the Governor is reported as saying as to his 
approving or vetoing it : 

y I must say that I feel a great deal of embarrassment from the situa- 
tion m which I am placed Avith such piles of remonstrances and petitions 
on the one hand and on the other, constantly commg in. There was a 
te egram from Tacoma with thirteen pages of signatures, and others from 
other places Telegrams have come from Seattle, signed by promi- 
nent business men, and last night a message came from eleven business 

r? ^^^-.f ^^^"^ ^''^'''''" '^'^^^^'■'' ^'^^g ^°^* t^^ approval of the Local 
Option Bill. 

This matter- of petitions is one that is of very uncertain quantity I have 
had petitions come in here, for the pardon of prisoners, signed by almost 
everybody m the county, and, yet, neither the Judge nor the Prosecutino- 
Attorney had signed them. It may seem presumptuous to open this 

Teston'^of thi'Sl. " '"' '^ """" *^ '''^'''' ' ^-^^^^^^ *° ^« ^--d on a 
Whenever the people suffer one or two members of a secret 

sworn brotherhood, ivho belong first to their gang, to exercise 

more influence and power than all the people combined, then 

whiskey and vice are sure to get a hearing, while liberty, virtue 

right and justice are spurned to languish. 

When the "judge and prosecuting attorney" are mere tools 

of the gang, as is so often the case, where then! is there any 

recourse for their victims ? 



404 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

If the earnest will and voice of the people is thus to be 
spurned at the crook of the finger of perhaps the vilest villain 
in the gang! (as has been seen) what is there then in the 
most sacred right ofjjetUion ? 

Is a masonic railroad company a friend to justice or the 
people ? Can one of the people get any justice against such a 
gang in the " good judiciary ? " 

And, moreover, will not the " good judiciary " bankrupt 
him if he appeals to it for a final decision ? 

Is the masonic gang, called the " members of the bar," a 
friend to justice or the people ? 

Do they not cause all the laws to be flawed, so that it is 
simply a matter of fancy or of interest or corruption as to what 
they are to be held to be one thing to-day and another thing 
next month for a price ? 

Do they not, as secret middlemen, make the courts sink 
of prostitution and cold-blooded robbery ? 

Are they not as a cancer to the people ? Are not judges 
and prosecuting attorneys of this gang and secret sworn brethren ? 

Do not the masonic railroad companies really make the 
selections for office, and are supported by a petition of the 
brother members of the "bar "—the cancer of the people ? 

Could a prince of virtue and ability get a judgeship against 
Ijoth or either of these masonic " charitable societies," the 
caincer of the people ? 

"Where then is a victim's recourse when the people even en 
masse are considered as a " very uncertain quantity,'' as against 
one of these tools of the gang, whose stay in office depends on 
the amount of innocent blood and plunder he sucks from the 
victims ! when the most sacred right of petition is nullified, 
spurned and spit upon ? 

That the cancer may suck the homes and heart's blood of 
its victims. No law should be made or unmade against the ex- 
pressed will of two-thirds of the people. Nor shndd any bill 
become a laio until sanctioned by the people, and when thus en- 
dorsed no court should be cdh-ived to abrogate or mdlify it. If the 
people do not know their constitution, and whether a law would 
violate it, then it is time for them to build one that they can 
understand. 



My Release. 405 



If the courts were honest they would not wait till laws 
have been in force for eleven or seventeen years, and then 
annul them to enrich the gang. But they would confirm or 
abrogate them, forth with on their enactment, if at all. 

But a mere sprig of a cancer need not be expected to favor 
such reforms. He would sooner build with the people's money 
a hatcJiery to breed little cancers, for such an " attractive field." 

" February 4th, 1886. — Legislature adjourned witliout visiting this 
place. It is left discretionary watli tlie Governor whether the jirisoners 
are taken away the first of July or held here to enrich the gang, till the 
prison is built." 

"Seatco Pkison, Wash. Tee., February 16th, 1886. 
Hon. K. O. D. . . . 

Deab Sir : — Will you please inform me as to the action taken on my 
petition to the late Legislature for an investigation of my case and duress, 
and whether it was squelched and the reason therefore, and greatly obhge, 

Geo. W. France." 

More rot. 

" Goldendale, Wash. Ter., March 4th, 1886. 
Geo. W. France : 

Dear Sir: — The Legislature concluded that it was not proper for it 
to take ciiminal mattei-s oiit of the hands of the courts. The only party 
to apjjeal to after conviction is the Governor. If the Legislature should 
go into the subject of investigation there would be little use for courts. If 
yours is a meritorious case, and the Governor is apprised of the facts, that 
would go to show the error of your conviction, I have no doubt that he 
will extend the executive clemency. Yours Respectfully, R. O. D. . ." 

Then, when the Governor belongs to the gang, there is no 
recourse for one of their victims. And if the Legislature will 
not investigate and correct such corrupt abuses, then there is 
"little use " for legislatures. One who writes or talks like E. 
O. D . . on being informed of such distress, is either a fool or a 
thief. 

The kind of an outfit this Legislature was and how it 
was run by masonic gangs. 

From the Press : — " It is impossible to conceive of a more 
corrupt, worthless and faithless body than the wretched Legis- 
lature of 1885. Upon the members of that body the railroad 
strikers of Oregon and Washington set to work as they had 
never set to work before. A lobby [mason] was established at 
Olympia, which practiced methods of such shameless corrup- 



406 EXTKACTS FROM DiARY KePT IN PRISON. 

tion as lias seldom been seen in the United States. The real 
story of the last Legislature, of the lobby established by two 
great corporations who combined in the nefarious work of de- 
feating the will of the people, of the open and notorious cor- 
ruption which was employed to bind a majority as with hooks 
of steel to their [masonic] masters, of the means by which any 
legislation in the interest of the people was prevented : that 
story has never been told, and if it ever is told and told truly, 
the people will listen with amazement to a story of corruption 

such as has seldom blotted the annals of free government 

.... All good citizens should hope that the nest Legislature 
will be a vast improvement on the last. It it is not, the people 
oi Washington Territory had better give up the idea of at- 
tempting to govern themselves, and throw themselves upon the 
protection of some kind-hearted Czar." 

[But the gangs prevent by laio and a corrupt judiciary the 
telling of the " true stories " of corruption and crime of their 
members. Here following is what one of the gang says as to 
such law.] 

"Below is given the text of the libel law. It makes the publisher of 
a libel responsible in civil damages or criminally, and we believe it to be 
a good law that no fair, honest man need fear, but which will have a 
salutary effect upon all evil-minded persons." 

\^And here folloics the truth ;] 

" An attorney in this city assures us that the lately enacted 
libel law is operative only against decent people, and is null 
and void against persons destitute of good character." [None 
-of the laws are operative against members of the gang, and a 
Judge has lately openly declared suhstantiaUy , that " the laws 
against stealing do not apply to members of the gang." One 
who had robbed a county treasury was discharged by the 
court " because the law did not apply to him" (or his case), 
"that it is so, he is jJositive. It is a delightful law, indeed, that 

will tolerate and foster a social condition of this nature It 

was perhaps an understanding of this character that induced 
notoriously bad men, scandal-mongers, and professional libelers, 
to urge the passage of this libel law, that they might go on in 
their wickedness, and flourish at the expense of the better 
portion of the community." 



My Eelease. 407 



Again. — "One of tlie last acts of the Legislature was to pass a law, 
exempting from 'taxation charitable institutions and church edifices pud 
grounds to the extent of $5000 in value. 

The jaeople of Washington Territory at the last general election decid- 
ed by an orer whelming majority in favor of taxing church proi^erty. The 
Legislatm-e did very wi-oug in jjassing such a law." [But they consider 
the people a " very uncertain qicantify/^] 

This bill was enacted so as to exempt from taxation the 
dens and other property of the midnight gangs, wliicli are con- 
sidered by the brethren in office as ''charitable institutions." 

Again from the Press. — "It will take two years and an outlay of 
thousands of dollars in legal expenses, to decide what is law. About the 
first thing that a lawyer now undertakes in the interest of his client [if he 
belongs to the gang] is to get the laws "busted," if thereby he can gain 
an advantage." 

And again. — " It is asserted that every corrupt j^ractice is 
brought into play, that money is freely used, that men recom- 
mended by their duj^licity and their ability as fixers have been 
imported from beyond the borders of the Territory to perform 
the filthy work of the lobby, and that the wishes of the people 
have been deliberately overridden by lobbyist and legislator 
alike 

They can and do exert a supervision over all legislation, 
and defeat any that is conceived, in the interest of the j^eople. The 
managers of the lobby at Olympia, among whom are a well 
known Oregon politician, and an equally well known Territor- 
ial Official [both masons, of course], it is asserted, receive daily 
instructions from headquarters — instructions it is safe to say 
they carry out to the letter. Never has our Territory been so 
shamefully, outrageously disgraced .... never have a people 
been bound hand and foot and handed over to their enemies by 
their faithless servants in a more shameful manner. If there 
is a citizen of the Territory who does not blush at the thought 
of this corruption, he is unworthy of his citizenship. These 
facts are coming to the ears of the people slowly. This is to 
be accounted for in several ways. The devotion of both of the 
Olympia newspapers to the cause of monopoly [masonry], their 
connection with all that is evil in our politics, and their hostil- 
ity to every popular movement is well known. Thev, of course, 
could be relied upon not to tell anything of the operations of 



408 EXTKACTS FEOM DiARY KePT IN PrISON. 

the lobby. The correspondents at Olympia have, with one ex- 
ception, been purchased or cajoled, and have become pliant 
tools of the corruptionists. With such a condition of affairs it 
has been an easy matter to carry on the nefarious work as if in 
the dark — to persuade legislators that their actions would 
never be known by their constituents." 

" March 10th, 1886. — I wrote to the prison director who 
was to assist the Governor in the investigation of my case : 

" When you were here with the Governor you appeared to 
be interested in my case, and said you would, at the Governor's 
request, investigate the matter, including all the papers on file, 
and would also write to the references as to the same. But I 
have failed to hear anything further from you or the Governor. 
And I am still here, suffering the cruel ravages of the black 
conspiracy Now I earnestly request you to frankly and de- 
finitely answer me the following questions. Will you, please, 
do so? 

First — What papers, letters, etc., did you find on file as to 
my case at Olympia ? 

Second. — Will you, please, answer the questions and points 
as given and numbered in my argument and plea ? 

Third. — Is not my case and innocence fully shown and de- 
monstrated ? If not, on tvhat ijoint ? 

Fourth. —Are not my references for proof very complete 
and knowing, and as worthy of belief and influence as any 
against me ? 

Fifth. — Is there any stronger case, in justice and right, or 
any urged by better or more competent witnesses and proof than 
given in my favor ? If so, please name any such case ! 

Sixth. — Is it fair play to be influenced and controlled in 
such matters by secret influences that fear the scrutiny of light? 

Seventh. — Why is a respeciful hearing and an open daylight 
investigation of my case alivays squelched ? 

Eiyhth. — Does not Judge Wingard declare virtually, that I 
am unjustly held in prison ? 

Now, Mr , please be so good as to answer my questions 

honestly, frankly and specifically — manly. And greatly oblige 
Tours very respectfully, 

Geo. W. France." 



My Release, 409 



" P. S. — If you will not answer these questions, wliicli are 
of such vital concern to me, please transmit the same to the 
Governor, with my request that he will do so. G. W. F." 

To which he replied (?), ignoring my questions— fearing to 
face the truth, as they always did — and gave this rot as a 

"reply " : 

"In reply I -will say: — I had not forgotten your case, but it stands in 
the way. The case is before the Governor for his action and investigation, 
and is entirely out of my reach. I have had a number of talks "with the 
Governor and have tendered him my services whenever he requires them. 
That is all I could do. The Governor has his own ideas of these matters, 
and yoiir only way is to address him direct. His conversation with me 
was confidential. I ■svill, therefore, not repeat it. " 

So the matter was conceded to be a ring secret, that they 
were bound to heep in the dark. 

As to me " addressing the Governor direct," I had al- 
ready done so, but with no more effect, than if he loas pledged to 
the gang to keep the matter in the dark, so it would not be 
"troublesome" to them. 

A man had been elected as Delegate to Congress, as a 
champion of the people against the gang known as the N. P. R. 
E. But whether he was a mason himself and thus betrayed 
the people I did not know, but thought I would find out whether 
he would really defend one of the people against the gang. So 
I addressed him as here to follow: 

Seatco Prison, Thurston Co., W. T., April 7th, 1886. 
Hon. C. S. VooKHEES, "Washington, D. C. 

Dear Sir: — Over seven years ago, by the aid of C. . .'s treachery, I 
was shanghaied from my home in Columbia County and incarcerated in 
this prison. 

It was a conspiracy to murder and rob me, I being jjossessed of a 
S25,000 plant and fortune I had honestly earned, as the land records will, 
in a degree, show. In repelling a murderous attack with a carbine, while 
peaceably at work on my own home, I returned the fire Avith a pocket 
pistol, killing one of the gang who was thus shooting at me, kilhng a horse 
by my side. And he having sworn to kill me at such time, place and cir- 
cumstance. Then by the treachery of C. . . and another blackleg shyster 
(B. . . ) a large amount of money was, under hase, false pretensions, extorted 
from me, -without affording me any real trial — which I have always faded 
to get — and the facts of the damnable outrage are sought to be buried with 
me in this prison, while my family Avould be destroyed. Every effort to 



410 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

procure an open, lionest investigation has been squelched; the Governors 
putting me off with false promises and tiarning a deaf ear to all of my 
appeals as well as from Judge Wingard (to whom I refer), my neighbors 
and that of others usually successful in releasing prisoners from other 
prisons. There was never the shadow of any true case against me; so e\'i- 
dent is this, that no open opposition has appeared against my release, and 
the Governors know that I am innocent of any crime. 

I have been informed that I could get out for more money; but I 
earnestly appeal to you to present my case to the President, to the Secre- 
tary of the Interior and to Congress, and establish whether there is any 
recourse in such a case of cruel, brutal, inhuman outrage and ravage, 
or not. 

I have appealed in vain to the Governors to put a finger on any point 
or phase charged against me, that has not been completely refuted, and 
that it icould be, beyond question. But they could not do it and will not 
attempt it. Yours very truly, 

Geo. W. Fbance." 

("Written after my release.) 

"Peola, Garfield Co., W. T., July 28th, 1888. 
Hon. C S. Voorhees, Washington, D. C: 

Dear Sir: — I wrote to you by registered letter, April 7th, 
1886, informing you that I had been shanghaied, and was then 
incarcerated in the Seatco contract-bastile. That I was inno- 
cent of any crime, and had never had and could never get any 
real trial, or find any recourse in the territory, etc., etc. And 
appealed to you to present my case to the President, Secretary 
of the Interior, and to Congress. 

But I never received even a reply. I desire, if you please, 

to know your reason for thus ignoring such an appeal for 

justice and humanity in behalf of a pioneer homebuilder, cruelly 

languishing in prison to be plundered and ravaged by the gang. 

Yery truly, Geo. W. France." 

"House of Repkesentatives, TJ. S., 
Washington, D. C, August 9th, 1888. 
Geo. W. Fkance, Esq., Peola, Wash.: 

Sir: — I have no recollection whatever as to the circumstance to 
which you refer in your letter of the 28th ult. I A\ill be glad to serve you 
in any way I can, if you will make the case known to me. 

Yours truly, C. S. Vookhees. " 

" Peola, Garfield Co., W. T., August 23rd, 1888. 
Hon. C. S. Voorhees : 

Dear Sir : — Your favor of the 9th inst. at hand. I enclose 



My Eelease. -ill 



Post Office receipt of the letter I wrote to you while falsely 
confined in the Seatco bastile. 

• Yon can serve me and a just cause by having the depart- 
ment investigate the matter and find out to a certainty ivho 
stole that letter ? Other functions of the Government were pros- 
tituted against me, and the post-master, being one of the prison 
contractors, may be the thief. 

The letter was of the greatest vital importance — beyond 
that of dollars and cents — and noio let it he hnoiun lohether such 
brutal crimes can he done with impunity or not. Many of my let- 
ters were never received, and I wish you to inform me whether 
you will 23itsh and stay ivith this matter to a definite conclusion. 
Yours truly, Geo. "W. France." 

"Colfax, W. T., September 7tli, 1888. 
Geo. W. France, Peola, W. T. : 

Dear Sir : — If youA\'ill, upon my retiu-n to Washington next fall, again 
direct my attention to the subject matter of your letter of the 23d ult., 
which was forwarded me here, I will very gladly institute such investi- 
gations as you suggest. I return the registry receipt "n^th the suggestion 
that you will send it to me when you A\i-ite in the latter part of Novem- 
ber. Very truly yours, C. S. Voorhees." 

"December 10th, 1888. 

... .In accordance with your promise to investigate, 
etc., the matter of the loss or theft of the letter I registered to 
you for investigation of my case while falsely imprisoned, on 
your return to Washington from Colfax, I herewith return the 
receipt and urgently " direct your attention to the subject " as 
you suggested in your letter of September 7th, 1888. 

Please let me know if you receive this, also the result of 
investigation, as I desire to push the matter to some definite 
conclusion. Please have the receipt preserved, and in case of 
failure return it to me and greatly oblige. 

Yours truly, Geo. TV. France." 

This investigation was squelched also, and the receipt 
stolen too, as I never heard anything more about it. It should 
interest and spur the American people to action to know that 
every hranch of the government is rotten with linked masonry, so 
that only outside criminals can be punished for crime. 

^^ June 14th, 1S86. — Contract let at Walla Walla to build a peniten- 
tiary." 



412 Extracts fkom Diary Kept in Prison. 

"July 1st. — Prison contract is expii'ed ; so tlie Governor can keep 
the prisoners wherever he pleases, and can utilize their labor in the build- 
ing of the pen at Walla Walla, there being suitable temporary quarters 
that could be had, or a cheap building could be built on the ground 
and afterwards used for shops. " 

But the Governor chose to leave the jsrisoners to eniich the gang 
at the expense of the people, and continue the contract-bastUe-brutality 
as long as jjossible. 

" July 9th, 1886. — Ex-Governor [Links] tells me voluntarily, 
that "if lie was Governor he would let me go," that " my con- 
duct has always been good," and he "will recommend my pardon 
to Governor [Mason]." I reply that "I thought you was op- 
posing my release ? " 

" No," he said ; " I have not done that. All I have got 
against you is, you made Judge Wingard and me enemies." 
" Will you give me a copy of your recommendation to the Gov- 
ernor ?" said I. 

"Yes," said he, "I will bring it the next time I come." 
[He is now the prison doctor. It will be remembered how / 
made Links and Wingard enemies.] 

"July 27 ih. — Ex-Governor (Doctor) [Links] here; said "he would 
wiite the recommendation to the Governor to-night, as soon as he got 
home, and also a co-^j of it for me." 

"August 29th, 188G. — Doctor (ex-Governor) here; says he ' has wiitten 
and sent to the Governor his recommendation for my release,' that 'your 
conduct Ik IS alairujs been good, and you have been here long enough. ' Will 
bring copy of it next time he comes." So he says, Avith his mouth — more 

KOT. 

" August 30tk. — J. P.. pardoned from Oregon penitentiary — had a 
Hfe sentence and served about five (5) years ; was first sentenced to hang." 
"September 18th. — Governor [Mason] goes to the States without com- 
ing here at all." 

" Must rmnpaiit vice still triumph over laws, 
And ivill not pitying heaven avenge our cause? " 
"Only the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in the dust." 

" Seatco Prison, W. T., October 20th, 1886. 
Hon. N. H. [Mason]: 

Sir: — As you are acting Governor, I most respectfully and 
earnestly appeal to you for my restoration. 

I have been cruelly and malignantly imprisoned for over 
eight years. Yet, if you will examine all the papers on file in 



My Release. 413 



my behalf, or heretofore addressed to the Governors, and never 
ansiveredy you will be compelled to see that I was never guilty 
of any crime. And which fact, if not apparent as to any point, 
I have always begged to establish beyond dispute, if such point or 
phase be pointed out that is held against me. 

If, after all this suffering, and abuse, and ill-health, and 
ravage, you have the hardihood to reject my petition, at least 
please answer this letter, and the points made in my argument 
and plea on file — each to each, as pointed out and numbered 
from " one to four," which will be doing that much more than 
your vindictive, unrelenting predecessors have done, and Icnoio- 
ing all the time that I was shanghaied and betrayed for plunder 
and ravage, and that I only defended my life. 

Yours very truly Geo. "W. France." 

This official was also a secret-sworn-brotherhood-man, as 
his evasive and contemptible rot shows for itself, for neither 
would he face my case at all, and beholds that the "i^eople and 
justice be damned," and that the masonic prostituted courts 
are infaUihle. 

"Teeritoky of "Washington. — Secretary's Office. 

Olympia, October 28th, 1886. 
Geo. W. France, Seatco, W. T. : 

Dear Sir : — In reply to yours of tJie 20tli inst. I Avill say that I 
find nothing on file in this office that would justify the executive in 
taking action in your case that woidd set at naught the action of the 
judiciary. 

My own idea in regard to pardons is that in no case should the 
executive interfere with the courts, unless evidence is produced that 
was not before the court and jury, that would have cleared him on h" 
trial. Very respectfully yours, 

N. H. [MasonI, Acting Governor." 

The executive is 5M;orn to virtually " interfere with the courts " 
whenever they are prostituted, or through error do an injustice 
in such cases. If the courts were infallible, there would be no 
need of a higher power, and a fool ought to know that a secret 
ring court and a fixed jury care nothing ivhatever for the kind or 
amount of evidence in the case of the gang against a good citizen, or 
a good citizen against one of the gang, except its bearing on the 
public mind in making them odious. Yet this ring official 



414 Extracts feom: Diary Kept in Prison. 

holds and acts, that in such cases of court prostitution there 
should be no recourse for justice and truth. 

History gives no account of any more hellish tyranny than 
this. 

The pardoning power should be in the hands of the j^eople of 
each county or judicial district. Only members of the gang 
would oppose this, because they could not prostitute the people 
as easy as they do an office. 

Necu'Jy all good citizens do declare that the courts are pros- 
tituted against them, and that they " cannot get j\istice against a 
member of any midnight hrotherhood." 

"February 14th, 1887. — The new penitentiary at Walla 
Walla was turned over to the Governor as ' ready for occu- 
pancy.' The plain law requires the Governor to cause the 
prisoners to be removed thei^e forthtvifh, and appropriated the 
necessary means to do so." 

" March 15th, 1887. — Ninety-eight prisoners here now ; the 
Walla Walla Board of Trade declares that, 

" Whei-eas, if there is a legal doubt as to the maintaining of the prison- 
ers at the Territorial penitentiary (at Walla Walla), there is manifestly a 
graver doubt of power lor their maintenance elsewhere." 

" But the Governor contends, that it is more * lawful ' to 
continue the contract-bastile till the Legislature meets again, 
paying the gang hotel rates besides the labor of the prison- 
ers, than to comply with the plain letter and spirit of the law, 
which was considered as ample and all right when it was made 
and signed, until now, when it is to the interest of the gang to 
' discover ' the flaw with which they had fixed it. The most of 
the ring press are howling for the gang, and to rob the 
people. They, too, have \just discovered ' the hole or flaw in the 
law. Of course, the Governor didn't see it tvhen he signed if." 

"3Iarch24th, 1887.—Go\eviior [Mason] here; he had no- 
thing to say to me nor I to him. S . . asked him about his 
case; said he 'had never seen his petitions, though he was 
satisfied they were there, as S . . 's friends had told him of 
them, and he would see the Judge about his case.' S. . is 
given to understand that if he ' would leave the country he 
can get out.' Yet he knows of no opposition to his release 
except these prison contractors and the ex-Governor; he 



My Release. 41 i 



having exposed their conduct to the Legislature, and has been 
persecuted accordingly. Soon after Governor Links had been 
removed, S . . as well as myself asked him, if he had left our 
petitions, etc., on file in the executive office, and he replied 
that he had ; and subsequently I asked him again as to mine, 
and he said that he had left all of my papers, letters, * every- 
thing' on file with the new Governor. Yet, now Governor 
Mason says that he has never even seen S . . 's petitions, not- 
withstanding S . . told him of them, and asked him to examine 
them at his first visit here, when he said that he would ' act on 
France's case the first one,' etc." 

This is how such officials attend to the most vital business 
(an oath-hound trust) of their office, and ignore and spit upon 
the people, as an " uncertain quantity." 

" 3Iarch 26th. — It is reported that the daylight thrown on 
the Governors conduct in keeping the prisoners here (even 
after the completion of the Territorial penitentiary) by the 
people of Walla Walla, will cause the prisoners to be removed 
after some more parleying. 

It is also reported that Governor Mason will soon be re- 
moved, and the prisoners rejoice, declaring him to be " even 
worse than Links, and that if this lane through hell is to ever 
have any turn, it must be at the next change of the devils in 
charge." 

The democrats here have been contending all the time that 
"if a democrat was appointed Governor, he would make a break 
in the ring, expose its corruptions to the people, and having 
some regard for the people's welfare, would be influenced by 
them, instead of being a tool of the gang, and would reform the 
office." 

The republicans here have replied that " while the repub- 
lican officials were dog-fish aristocrats, caring nothing for the 
good of the people, the democratic officials were slave drivers 
by instinct," and pointed to the prison contract system in the 
democratic States. That "while in such cases the contractors 
always ^30 u7 the State so much per day, instead of being paid 
seventy cents for each prisoner per day, besides their labor, as 
this gang was doing, yet, it was a brutality and outrage on 



416 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

men mostly hetter than themselves, if not such a bare-faced swindle 
in money on the people as in this Territory." 

Those who had critically studied the conduct of the offi- 
cials of both parties, maintained that there was no more differ- 
ence between the democratic and republican parties than there 
is between one masonic railroad company that has got a rail- 
road from the people, and another masonic railroad company 
that is trying to get the people to give them a railroad, or the 
means to get one without earning or buying it. And that 
there is no more difference in the principles and feelings of the 
officials, or more influential members of these parties, than there 
is between one free-mason or odd-fellow chief and another 
free-mason and odd-fellow chief, they being linked together in 
a secret sworn robber clan, as the Chinese highbinders (free- 
masons) ignoring and spurning our Government and courts, ex- 
cept to prostitute them, so as to enrich themselves and picnic 
at the expense and distress of the people. That their prosti- 
tuting secrets are so diabolical that it is death to reveal them to 
the people. 

"April 9th. — Governor [Mason] orders the prisoners to be removed to 
WaUa Walla, May 1st." 

" April lOtJi, 1887. — Governor [MasonJ bounced and a ^ Democrat^ is 
appointed Governor." 

" April 23(1. — Governor ['Democrat'] assumed liis office. " 

" April 29th. — Governor ['Democrat'] has suspended the 
order to remove the prisoners, and the contractors smile, the 
prisoners shudder and remark, 'how other men violate the law 
with impunity.' " 

" May 5t]c.—G:oyexuox 'Democrat' here; he doesn't want 
to talk to any prisoners, which is just as well, unless he is more 
truthful than his predecessors. It is reported that he has 
weakened and that the prisoners will leave here the 10th inst." 

If these Governors were in irons as prisoners, hoio their 
physiognomies ivould he remarked! 

" May 10th, 1887.— We boarded the train for the new prison 
at Walla Walla; occupy two passenger and one baggage car. 
Nothing very strange on the road; about half of the prisoners 
were heavily ironed in pairs, two of whom cut loose and jumped 
out of a window — one escaping, the other was stopped with 



My Release. 417 



pistol shots. The most of the other men were ironed single ; 
the balance of us not at all. A lame one * with pride in his 
port,' against whom the ex-Governor and Co. had a grudge on 
account of his frank morals, though scarcely guarding him be- 
fore — sometimes not at all — and had never attempted to escape, 
was now heavily riveted to an ugly Indian — (even the day be- 
fore starting) — to reduce his moral standard. 

Herod to his sons : — " But do you, oh, my good children, 
reflect upon the holiness of nature itself, by whose means 
natural affection is preserved even among wild beasts ; let this 
oppression raise the fire of vengeance in your hearts— deter- 
mined to be avenged." 

" Fm' off through the lone night watch I had yearned for my home, 
When dreams and thoughts of happiness across my soul had co^ne; 
Yet, now my heart xvas fainting and I gazed with anxious fear 
Upon the loell-Tcnown mountains, though so beautiful and near.''^ 

"Walla Walla, W. T., May 17th, 1887. 
Hon. S. C. Wingakd: 

Deae Sir :— I am still in prison, (or what is left of me) and 
no man has yet dared to charge that it is so by any fault of 
mine, and accord me a fair chance to refute it. Neither 
Governor could, or would thus mark a single point against me; 
they hneio there was never any true case against me ; they hieio 
that I was attacked on my own home, and failing by a scratch 
to murder me there, that they shanghaied me to carry out their 
hellish designs of murder, robbery and ravage by degrees, by 
prostituting the courts and executive office. 

And yet they held me down for my heart's blood to be 
wrung out, as though I had not the right to defend my life 
against a robber assassin firing at me with a carbine, and the 
magazine filled for the very purpose. 

Eecall what I told you at the out-set ; and now that so 
many of my assertions are proven true by a succession of terrible 
events, that I begged of you to help prevent and thus save me 
from ruin, you must know that I always spoke the truth. 

Although there is comparatively little left for me to 

struggle or live for now, and so many honest, earnest efforts for 

my restoration have been spurned and spit upon, or squelched, 

yet, I wish to revive those true and tvorthy efforts and showings 

27 



418 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 



to the attention of Governor ['Democrat'] and see whether 
he, too, will spurn and spit upon them, or will do me what 
justice he can. Will you, therefore, kindly renew your efforts in 
my behalf to the new Governor? 

Yours Truly, 

Geo. W. France." 

''May 20fk— Judge Wingard sent recommendation (to 
Governor) to me, to see it before mailing ; also sent excuse for 
not coming to see me personally — that he " did'nt like to show 
discrimination." [A Judge could learn more knowledge that 
would fit him for a Judge by visiting all of his subjects, than 
he ever can from law books.] 

He says to the Governor: "I especially recommend for 
pardon George W. France, as he has fully expiated the crime 
for which he was convicted and sentenced." 
To which he received the following reply : 

" Washington Tekkitoey, Executive Department, 
goveknok's office. 

Olympia, W. T., May 23rd, 1887. 
Hon. S. C. WiNGAED, WaUaWaUa, W. T. 

Dear Sir: — Your note of May 20tli, recommending pardon of George 
"W. France, is received and placed on file. There is no application for the 
release of this prisoner in this office. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

E. . . [Democrat], Governor." 

Judge W . . sent me the Governor's letter to answer; which 
I did by giving the Governor a list and synopsis of what should 
be on file in my behalf and closed as here to follow : 

"I submit that the fact alone that a prisoner's honest, earnest 

efforts, and that of his friends, are stolen or squelched, ought 

to be proof to an honest man, that official functions have been 

prostituted against him. 

Yours very truly, 

Geo. W. France." 

''June loth, 1887.— One of the guards— an old time ac- 
quaintance— tells me that " it is the talk" and "seems to be 
understood that you will be released in a few days." I ask 
him to be my substitute for those "few days," and he swears 
that he " really would if he could, though it were many months," 
etc. 



My Keuiase. 41 U 



"Walla Walla, W. T., June 15th, 1887. 
Hon. S. C. Wingakd: 

Dear Siit : — I forthwith wrote Governor [Democrat] in re- 
gard to the absence of petitions, etc., etc., for my release; citing 
the greater part of what should be on file and that Governor 
[Links] had repeatedly declared that he had left all — ' every- 
thing ' in my behalf on file ; and later that he had written to 
Governor [INIason] }ns recommendation for my pardon; and that 
Governor [IVIason] never disputed the same to me ; — but I get no 
reply. 

I am, therefore, constrained to request you to answer him 
(Governor Democrat) also, and in as urgent a manner as the 
case demands. 

I have but four months from the 21st inst. to my short 
time, which would not justify the duplicating of all the work 
done for my justice, by friends worn out in the cause, only to 
be lied to and spit at by blackleg Governors, at the secret beck 
of their kind. 

I told Governor [Democrat] that it was " but a technical 
sentence," done with the understanding that I would be 
presently restored." 

Yours very truly, 

Geo. W. France." 

To which Judge W — replied as follows : 

" WaiiLA WAiiLA, Wash. Territory, June 20tli, 1887. 
Mr. Geo. W. France. 

Dear Sir: — I have ■wi-itten to Governor [Democrat] as you requested. 
Yoiirs, etc., S. C. Wingard." 

[He got some kind of a reply ; to which he replied June 25th. ] 

''June 25th. — The warden tells me 'the Governor has sent 
for my commitment' which is supposed to mean that my case 
is settled, that I go forthwith — the commitment being used to 
make out a pardon." 

" June 27th. — Judge Wingard and others called ; he said, 
* the Governor has sent for your commitment and we expect to 
see you out very soon,' etc. He told another prisoner that he 
' had recommended my pardon to three Governors, and he is still 
held: " 

July 4th. — E. V. . . and family called. Say, that "the most of those 



420 EXTKACTS FROM DiARY KePT IN PRISON. 



wlio were active agaiust me, have themselves been wi-ecked and their true 
characters exposed in trying to wreck others, etc. ; and that they (my 
neighbors) want me back." 

Tlie gang evidently sends in another secret veto, and tlie 
Governor writes tlie following contemptible, rotten quibble. It 
is either one false excuse or another (and, of course, such can 
always be had) and means that there is no recourse for a victim 
of the gang, and that it still rules. 

"Olympia, W. T., July 9th, 1887. 
Hon. S. C. WiNGAKD, WaUaWaUa, W. T. 

Deak Sik : — Your letter of June 25th was duly received and contents 
noted. Answer has been delayed, pending examination into the case of 
Geo. W. France, and, as before stated, I do not think it jDroper to grant a 
pardon upon the mere request of any number of persons, or upon argu- 
ments or theories other than those based upon well-estabhshed facts. A 
showing in the natui-e of the sho-wing required uj^on a motion for a new 
trial should be made. And upon notice to the District Attorney. In the 
case under consideration I do not think there is sufficient cause shown for 
executive interference, and, therefore, the prayer of the petition must be 
denied. Very respectfully, 

E. . . [Democrat], Governor." 

So Judge W . . was still incompetent to properly present 
my case. One would think that after all of his experience in 
the matter with the other Governors, they would have taught 
him the way to do such business. But he knew that the rotten, 
quibbling excuse was a mere haudfull of soft dirt thrown in the 
face for a blind, and that, do what we mig t, he would always be 
found full of dirt to spit out, and so he gives up the job as 
follows : 

"Walla Walla, W. T., July 11th, 1887. 
Mr. Geo. W. Fkance. 

Dear Sir:— I send you the reply of the Governor, which, I regret, is 
not favorable to your release. 

I do not know the reason, but all of the Governors seem to take an ad- 
verse view of your application. Now I have done aU I can for you, and 
without fee or reward or the expectation of any. Nor would I accept any- 
thing for what I have done, if offered. If I could pardon you, I would do 
so, because I think you have been punished enough for your ofifense. 

But I am powerless to aid you further, except to sympathize with you 
which I know is poor comfort. Respectfully yours, 

S. C. WiNGARD." 



My Kelk^se. 421 



The Governor wanted to go through the motions of doing 
something and do nothing. 

The "arguments and theories " of my case uv?'e "based 
upon well established facts," and the Governor knew it, if he 
cared to knew it, and he could not put his finger on a single 
weak point. 

And the showing was ten times stronger and more complete 
than is generally required upon "a motion for a new trial," and 
this he hieiv also, if he cared to know ; and the district attorney 
tuas notified in various ways. 

But it must be an effort of one of the gang, for a price, to 
be attractive to such ring lackeys. This is the fellow that 
nominated ex-Governor Links for a trustee of the insane 
asylum! which shows how he would murder sufieiing humanity 
to affiliate with his 

" Should pale disease their trembling limbs invade, 
They would call not, they would expect not human aid." 

" July 28th.— B . . called ; says, ' the people felt very sorry 
for me, etc., but had found that tliey had no influence to redress 
the wrong, and could do nothing.' " 

'' August 4th. — Prison directors here; said, they 'would 
forthwith recommend my release,' and afterwards one of them 
told me that 'they had done so.' I believe this had never before 
been done in the Territory. 

" August 8th.— 1 asked the warden whether ' there is going 
to be any foolishness about me getting all of my short time,' he 
replied, ' I don't see hoiv there can be, for there is not a single 
scratch against your conduct, neither here nor at Seatco.^ " 



" Oh, what a tangled web we weave, 
Wliene'er we practice to deceive. " 

" August 9th. — Eeceived letter from M . . saying, ' We would 
gladly assist you in any way we could to get you your freedom, 
for you should not have been imprisoned at all, and we have 
written several times to the Governor in regard to your case, 
but he would not even reply,' etc." 

"August 20th.— I have been shown a letter from the Gov- 
ernor, and in spitting on the petition for the release of one of 
the innocent prisoners, he virtually declares that the people 



422 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 



should not be permitted to interfere with the work of the gang, 
or courts, when they are prostituted or err. He regards peti- 
tions of the people as ' toorthless,' and continues saying, 'a peti- 
tion no matter from Jioiv many 2^eo2jle, is not ordinarily ground 
for granting a pardon.' " 

Thus he admits that the government is not ' by the people 
—for the people,' and he continues : ' The people have estab- 
lished courts to deal with such cases.' [But they reserved to 
themselves the right of petition to correct their abuses, and any 
man who would spit upon or nullify this right, is a tool of the 
gang and a traitor to his country.] 

"And," he continues, "Executive officers should not inter- 
fere to disturb the course of justice except upon the very 
strongest showings." 

[But it is the course of iNJustice and iniquity and 7'obbery, 
that the people frequently have occasion to " disturb " and cor- 
rect. And what stronger showing could there be than that a 
victim was positively and beyond dispute innocent of any crime, 
as was done in my case, and yet even this was spurned. 

It is false to assert that the people established these courts 
as they are in practice — robbing machines run in the interest of 
the gang. Tools of the gang talk that way, but nine of thepeopile 
out of ten declare the courts to be " a rotten fraud." 

If a person will sign a petition ignorantly or wrongly, so 
will he vote, and to petition should be as effective as to vote. 

Thieves and traitors can get votes, nominations and ap- 
pointments to office, by conspiracy, corruption and deceit, who 
naturally deny the people the right to effectually retort, censure 
and correct these false, corrupt agents, who are supposed to be the 
people's servants, not their tyrants and vampires. 

The foregoing case was this : A very peaceable man had, 
in the defense of his life and household, killed a man who was 
.armed with a razor and gun, and in the act of " cleaning out the 
ranch," as he had said he would come and do. This was so 
plain and evident that there was not an effort made to arrest 
him, or try the case for several years afterwards, when the main 
witnesses had died, then his enemies (against the will and judg- 
ment of the people, who knew the case as can be imagined 
better than the courts could know it by their mode of practice) 



My Release. 423 



secured his conviction and sentence of thirteen years iu prison. 
And even now, when the victim has suffered near half of this 
age of time, the outcry of the people for his justice is spurned as 
" 2V07'tMess," and he is cruelly told that he must so horriUy lan- 
guish and die ! 

The heads of tyrants have been paraded through the 
streets, stuck on poles, for less tyranny than this. 

Now FOR A LITTLE DEFFEEENT EXAMPLE : Afterwards S . . 
pleads guilty to burglary, and gets one year in this pen, but says 
" he will not stay long, for the Governor is almost obliged to par- 
don him." When pressed for a reason why the Governor would 
favor him more than others, said : his "father ivas a mason." 
The pardon came in tivo months, nor did they bother with any 
"worthless" public petition. 

Oh, try to think of the feelings of the innocent who must 
languish ! and see to it, my fellow-men, that the sober second 
thought of the people shall he laio. 

The following are some of the reasons given for granting 
pardons by the Governor of Oregon : 

"Grave doubts as to guilt." 

Youth of the prisoner and promise to leave the State. 

Evidence that the offense committed was entirely unpremeditated. 

Severity of sentence. 

Good conduct of prisoner. 

Failing health. 

Petition of persons and judicial oflficers. 

Previous good conduct and good character. 

Offense was committed in the heat of passion, and under very trying, 
provoking and aggravating circumstances. 

Because con^'iction was made on purely circumstantial evidence. 

Advanced age. 

The Governor (Hill) of New York "requested the friends of the 
prisoners to furnish him information on six points — whether the piisoners 
were not properly defended, or their trials were conducted improperly or un- 
fairly ; whether it is now claimed that the jsrisoners were innocent of the 
offense for which they were convicted ; whether, if they were guilty, they 
are now penitent and are wiUing to cease the commission of such offenses; 
what mitigating circumstances are claimed to exist which call for or war- 
rant executive clemency ; whether the sentences are held to have been too 
severe for the offenses charged ; and whether anything has occurred since 
their trials to change the circumstances of their cases." 

[They were pardoned. ] 



424 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

None of the four blackleg secret ring Governors of Wash- 
ington would honestly and openly give out a single point, and 
they ignored and spurned every point and all the reasons 
deemed good enough for Oregon and New York. 

And I proved that the courts were closed against the 
prisoners, to be opened only on the delivery to the court gang 
of various hig sums of gold, that they have not ! These facts 
should awaken the most careless understanding. 
" Strike if you will but hear ! " 

" Sep)temher 17th. — Several preachers visited the prison; 
one of them ' hoped that I had repented and reformed.' 

' No, Sir ! I have done nothing for which I should repent 
or reform according to the golden rule — which is my creed — 
nor of the laws of Moses, or that of our own or any other coun- 
try on the face of the earth ! ' 

" But," said he, " I suppose you were convicted, and must 
therefore be guilty of crime ? " 

* Now, this shows your child-like ignorance of men, and the 
criminal jugglery of the courts, which you should learn, and 
then work to reform the oral criminals instead of their victims. 
I was shanghaied, never convicted at all, and I could find no re- 
course. Because men have been howled down by the gang 
and railroaded through the courts in charge and control of 
blackleg shysters — in whom victims are required to trust— and 
are thus thrown into prison, is really not reliable proof that 
they are criminals ; twenty per cent, of these prisoners are 
really no more guilty of crime than you are — supposing you to 
be innocent ; and take them all together, they are no more 
criminal at heart or brain than the first 100 men you see on the 
outside. The worst criminals of all belong to the gang, and 
thus get into office instead of into prison.' 

" But," said he, " it is a horrible thing to take human life ! " 

* Yes, indeed, said I, ' but I prevented that, in my case, by 
killing the robber assassin — even one of the gang — thus saving 
my life ! only, however, to be murdered and ravaged by the 
devil's brethren in office and out, who prostitute the courts and 
government for the purpose; but I expect no sympathy or help 
from you, sir, or you would have been preaching against such 
crimes and criminals, and if you have no concern as to my wel- 



My Eelease. -i'iS 



fare in this tvorld, certainly you have none as to the next ; there ! 
is Father B . . , who was my next neighbor, he knows me and my 
trouble well, and the fight ; see what he says about it ? Mr. 
B . ., was I to blame for anything I did as to my trouble or the 
fight?' 

" Yes ! you are to Name for one thing, but for one thing only." 

'Well? Whsit is that?' 

"Because you did not kill the man before you did; for you 
to let him follow you around the field — the way he did — and 
wait to look into the muzzle of his gun before you defended 
your life ivas foolhardy ; that is all you are to blame for, for if 
L. . had not struck the gun down the instant he did, you would 
have been killed." [Two or three preachers in unison.] 

" Of course, under such circumstances one is very justifi- 
able to kill another." 

But they should have sought out the truth before, and 
seized upon every opportunity to proclaim it to the people, it 
being a good but persecuted cause that would bear the scrutiny 
of lisht; it should not have been allowed to be hidden while 
even one victim was languishing for the right. 

"Show that thou hast not lived in vain, 
With life and genius cursed." 

I recently said to a phrenologist that " if he would visit a 
prison and examine the heads of the prisoners, he would find 
them to be an average lot of men mentally and morally." He 
replied that " he had done so, and found this to be true." 

^^ I write not these things to cause you to hate mankind, but as my sons 
to wa-rn you." — St. Paul 

^'■October 4tli. — Eeceived a note and a bundle of papers from a Mrs. 

Rev. M , saying that my children had once attended her school and -nere 

her friends, and she thus manifests tome a thoughtful and kindly feeling. " 

May she and all others, who have kindly remembered and 
befriended me while in prison, l-noiv, that they are held very 
dear to me, and ever cherished in my mind and heart of hearts, 
and that they did not do so in vain. 

"Oh ! could the muse some lasting wreath entwine, 
In stronger colors bid their virtues shine ! " 

" Bleak are our shores with the blasts of December, 



426 Extracts from Diary Kept in Prison. 

Fettered and chill is the rivtilet's flow; 

Throbbing and warm are the hearts that remember 

Who was our friend, when the rcorld tras our foe." 

Dr. Holmes. 

" August lOthy 1887. — Released from prison ; getting ten 
days more than my full short time * for uniformly good behavior.''" 

"The hopes that round my heart had clung, ere those I loved zcere gone. 
Had vanished as the sparkling frost beneath the noon-tide sun 
Melts from, some branching tree, icith its feathery gems of light, 
A nd leaves it dark and desolate, to tell of winter's blight. 

I feared the morn — I feared to seek my long, long- wished for home. 
As with a sad foreboding dread qfmiseiy to coiyie." 



A severed and a sorrowing thing, I had come back alone, 

One wandering bird unto the nest, from, which a brood had flown." 

" Oh, for a tongue to curse the slaves, 

Whose treason, like a deadly blight, 

Comes o'er the counsels of the brave 

And blasts them in their hour of might ! 

May Ufe's unblessed cup for them 

Be dragg'd with treacheries to the biim. 

With hoi)es that but alhu'e to fly, 

With joys that vanish, while they sij). 

Like Dead-Sea fruits, that tempt the eye, 

But turn to ashes on the lijis ! 

Their country's curse, their children's shame, 

Outcast of virtue, peace and fame, 

May they, at last, with Hps of flame 

On the parch'd desert thirsting die. — 

"^Tiile lakes that shone in mockery nigh 

Are fading oft, untouch'd, untasted. 

Like the once glorious hopes they blasted! 

And, when from earth their spirits fly. 

Just God, let the damn'd ones dwell 

Full in the sight of Paradise, 

Beholding heaven and feehng hell !" — Moore. 



J 



CHAPTER XX. 

Tkagedxes. — Land jumping, etc. — Experiences of other men. — More of 
real life and death in the North-west. — Examples of what Avas trans- 
l)iring Anth other peoj^le while and since I was languishing in j^rison 
for defending my Ufe and home against the gang. — Ajll of these 

WERE EITHER ACQUITTED OF A>Tr CRIME, OR NOT EVEN INDICTED OR 

TROUBLED — THE GLARING CONTRAST! — " Uneasy settlers. " — "A pro- 
tective association. " — "Land Jumping. " — " Put-up jobs. " — " Homes 
impeiiled." — " Shooting aflair." — "Vigilantes." — " Murderous assault 
by a band of midnight assassins." — "Highhanded." — "Lynching." 
"People arming." — "Dangerous man." — "Land troubles." — "A 
tramjjboom." — Killed for robbing sluice boxes. — Laying in wait to 
kill. — Filled wath shot. — Killing three men for a few doUai-s, etc. — 
From the Press. 

KJ NEASY Settlers. — Pursuant to a call, the citizens of the Western 
part of Garfield County, W. T., and some from Columbia County, met at 
Dry Hollow school house for the purpose of organizing a jDrotective asso- 
ciation. There was much interest taken in the matter. It was agreed 
that the long continued manipulation through [Masonic] rings and the in- 
fluence of money by corporated monopohes, to secure legislation for their 
own special benefit and to the detriment of the people atlai-ge, had become 
a power which threatened the destruction of the best interests of the 
country, and that, unless substantial reform was instituted, absolute 
sen'itude must be endured. The settlers show a determination to 
stand firm to their cause [against the gang to rob them of their 
homes], that they settled in good faith and had always tried to be law- 
abiding citizens; that, so far as they knew, they were entitled to all the 
rights of citizens; that the settlers jiropose to remain settled. Temjiorary 
officers were elected, the necessary committees were ap^jointed to ai*range 
constitution and by-laws, and report the names of charter members." 

"Land Jumping. — A man jumjjed Mr. H. ..'s claim near May view 
last week. He pitched his tent in the center of the waving grain and told 
the owner, if he did not kick up a fuss, he might have his grain and the 
ground on which the house stood. At last accounts the Jumjjer was 
dumped, tent and all, into the road by the indignant neighbors, and a 
specific time given him, in which to make himself scarce. " [The court 
gang would have charged all the place was worth to settle it, and, if the 
Jumper was a Mason or Odd Fellow, given him the place besides.] 

' ' Considerable f eeUng is manifested by many of our farmers, who 
have settled upon [/or/mted] railroad land in this vicinity, regarding the 
extremely high figure at which such lands are held and the short time given 
to settlers by the company [that had forfeited it] in which to make their 

(427) 



428 Real Life in the Noeth-West. 

first i^ayments. A niamber of petitions have been sent to Washington, and 
several meetings have been held in Whitman and Columbia counties, to 
devise means for self-protection. Several solid farmers were overheard on 
the streets, expressing their views regarding "Jumpers" who intended to 
take advantage of the scarcity of money, and jump such land as the claim- 
ant could not pay \ip on, reaping the benefit of the claimant's years of 
hard labor in improving the places. From the expressive way in which 
their lips came together, and the gleam of fire which flashed from then* 
eyes, knowing them to be some of our most resi>ectable and law-abiding 
citizens, we came to the conclusion that it would be extremely unhealthy 
for any land shark to make such an attempt. God help the man or men 
who try to rob them of their homes." 

[Hotv about blackleg Governors and the gang that stand in 
ivith and endorse the robbers ?] 

"■Mr. Editor. — I came into your midst to make my home for the re- 
mainder of the few years Providence may have alloted to me, and settled 
on a pre-emption claim. Shortly after one J. L. settled on railroad laud ad- 
joining and piat his house only a few yards from my line, and took parti- 
cular care to find out how I held the land, how long I had been on the 
land, and if I had any family or relatives Hving in this country. After- 
wards T. E. asked me, if I had hauled a quantity of wheat out of his barn. 
Denying the same, he told me that a man in J. L.'s employ had told him 
he had seen me going in with a two-horse Avagon and coming out loaded 

with wheat sacks If J. L. and Co. had sueceeded, by such means, 

to send me to States prison, J. L. would have moved his house over the 
Hne and taken my pre-emption. Not succeeding in this, he abandoned 
the land. Subsequently he told me, that he wanted my timber culture 
claim, and that I could go into his pasture and select any two horses out of 
his baud for the same. Ujion my refusing to make any such trade, he told 
me that if he could not get the land from me by fair means, that he would 
get it anyway, for it was necessary for him to have it. And, I believe, he 
would have taken it, if he had not some respect for shooting irons 

A few words aboiit Lynch law. — Congress has enacted laws by which 
individuals may get homes, provided they locate ou and cultivate the land. 
Shall we be boiind to conform to and respect those laws, or shall we go at 
the dark of night and take out a pei-son who has availed himself of the 
law, and hang him up to a tree until life is extinct ? 

[If you belong to a " bharitable " (?) brotlierliood, you may 
with impunity hang him up.] 

In charity to those fifteen men who, in the dead hours of night, called 
that man out, I will say, I hope by this time they have abandoned their 
tmlawful intentions. F. E. L." 

" Great indignation and uneasiness is everywhere manifest. 
Settlers who feel that their homes are imperiled, are flocking to 



Keal Life m the North-'W'est. 429 

town and discussing various means of protecting their rights^ 
and some swear, they will hang or shoot the first man or land 
shark who tries to jump their lands." 

[No home-builder has any confidence in the secret, ring-ridden 
coui'ts.] 

" Shooting affaii\ — S. . . met H. . . and shot him in the head, which so 
paralyzed him that he could scarcely speak. The skull was broken in 
fragments to the extent of over one inch square. Several fragments of 
bone and the bullet — ^in two pieces — were extracted; persons injured to 
that extent very rarely recover. [But he did.] H. . . had been waited 
upon and ordered to leave the vicinity, because he simply desired to con- 
test the rights of a piece of land. " 

[S. . . was acquitted (in Garfield County.] 

" Vigilantes. — Friday night about twenty masked men gathered on the 
road leading towards H. . . 's house (the victim of the H. . . S. . . tragedy), 
and, meeting with the doctors in attendance upon the wounded man, gave 
them a paper for H. . . 's brother to sign. Said document was in effect, 
that H. . . would leave the country within forty -eight hours, or suffer the 
consequences. [He left. ] While the action is not to be excused, there is 
a lesson which may well be taken home. It has become too common for 
trials to be a travesty on justice and Httle better than a farce, and it is 
scarcely to be wondered at, that an indignant community should lose 
patience and take the law into its own hands. It is to be hoped that the 
affair will serve as a lesson to law-makers [the gang] , so that they will so 
frame statutes that there will be more promptness and surety in i:)unishing 
land grabbers. " [Their brethren.] 

" SJiould cease. — "We mean the unlawful acts of threatening men to 
leave the community before they have been found guilty of crime, for 
which they cannot be made to pay the penalty according to law, on ac- 
count of Avincing the breaking of law by the constituted authorities 

Let such matters go before the proper tribunal [the court gang] for settle- 
ment [at their price of a big mortgage]. If the land in disjjute was not 
vacant according to law, H. . . could not hold it as against the claim of a 
bona fide settler." 

[That would depend on his influence at court, and it might 
take nine years and a big mortgage to find out. And the mid- 
night " charitable " (?) gangs are running men (who are object- 
ionable to them), out of the country nearly every day, and do 
so with impunity !] 

"Trouble is being experienced between mill owners and settlers along 
M. G. and Y. creeks. The millers jilaced two armed men at the forks 
with instructions to allow no one to interfere with the flow of the water." 

* * 

" M. . . is figuring in the courts as a much abused and injured man. 



430 Eeal Life in the North- West. 

He claims that last Sunday night, between the hours of one and two, 
twelve or fifteen armed and masked men appeared at his residence and 
placed a rope around his son's neck and dragged him out doors, choking 
him considerably. M. . . and his wife were sleeping on their pre-emption 
claim, about 300 yards distant, and Mrs. M. . . , alarmed at the cries of her 
boy, hastened to the house. Upon arriving there, she was seized and 
thrown down, dragged around, etc., as was her husband also, as soon as 
he arrived upon the scene. 

M. . . claims that the outrage was perpetrated by a neighbor, whose 
land he jumped, aided by friends. 

There are many who doubt the entii-e stoi-y; and the wounds are such 
as might have been caused by a little friendly discussion " wid fists," all 
among themselves." 

[It transpired that the chief of the mob was a Mason and 
that it was intended to kill M. . . (who was unknown to the 
chief as a brother in his gang), but on the verge of his death he 
(M. . . ) made his relation known with a sign to the Grand 
"Worthy Chief, who forthwith gave orders to quit, and they did. 
M. . . got the land also. It being just so in the courts, too. 

The following is how the Masonic press howled, when they 
found it was a brother.] 

"Murderous Assault.— Last Sunday morning at about one 
o'clock, a band of midnight assassins assaulted the J. M . . 
family in this [Garfield] county. We will not give the names 
of the parties this week, as they are not all caught yet. They 
knocked Mrs. M . down and bruised her, choked the old man and 
hit him a blow with the butt of a gun. The bloody parties also 
stole a gun and pistol from the house. The assassins were 
partly disguised when they did their bloody deed. Mr. M . . 's 
sons were also assaulted about the same time and place as that 
made on their father and mother. Whoever would be guilty of 
such work is meaner than a highwayman. There is law 
in this country for such men as M . . if any have a grievance 
against him and his family. [Yes, indeed, there is law/o>' such 
men, but none that will work against them.] We hope the 
parties will get the full extent of the law in this case. The 
proof is too overwhelming to fight the case in any court with 
hope of success." 

[When outsiders were the victims then the ring press only 
" hoped that the affair [?] would serve as a lesson to law- 
makers," and no attempts were made to arrest the mob. 



Real Life in the North- West. 431 

Therefore, tliis mob demanded the same immunity as ac- 
corded to the other brethren, as follows :] 

"High Handed. — -We have heard from good authority that some of 
the parties who were engaged in the M . . attack joined with others, held a 
meeting and passed resolutions of condemnation iipon several persons who 
were officially engaged in the jwosecution. That there were some forty 
persons present, and that one county officer was voted to be put out of the 
way by a vote of 34 to 6, and that each one of the band was sworn to 
secrecy. " 

"The excitement consequent upon the commiting of theM.. crime 
having mostly subsided, the people of this community were again startled 
by the reijort that plans Avere being made for the assassination of Justice 
O. . and the princij^al witnesses for the prosecution." 

"Those [masonic] fellows who hold secret meetings and take votes to 
put O . . , r . . , H . . and S . . to death, had better cease such work ; they 
are too cowardly to execute their plans unless they have greatly the advan- 
tage. If an attempt should be made to injure either of these jjarties 
thi-eatened, there would be a general uprising, and blot the whole lot out 
of existence at once. There is a move on foot to set fire to the house in 
which they meet and shoot everj^ one dead that might make an attemjit to 
leap from the flames, which would only inflict a modicum of the pain that 
awaits them in the flames in the regions of those whose deeds consign them 
to the hissing flames of eternal perdition in the fiery regions of the 
damned." 

[Just so, as far as it goes ; but why howl against, burn and 
shoot down the little loose side show-sprig of the devil, while 
the old-midnight-lurking, intriguing devil himself, with his 
army of Danites, arrayed for mutual slaughter and havoc and 
cruelty, are secure. 

" With pride in their port, defiance in their eye, 

We see the secret lurking lords of human kind pass by." 

Though the court machinery is worked in " mystery," it 
appeared that this sprig of its father made its relationship felt 
so effectively that the trials (?) were a notorious farce at the ex- 
pense of the people and profit to the gang, enlarged by secret fines 
of some of the accused.] 

" Do7i't do it. — We heard strong hints of lynching Mr. J. B . . 
for the manner he is conducting himself as an employee of the 
railroad company in the sale of lieu lands." 

" There seems to be an epidemic wave of madness moving 
over the country. Murder and theft, with other crimes and 
vices, are walking abroad at noonday. All this boldness in 



432 Keal Life in the North-West. 

crime grows out of the loose inanuer in which the penalties of 
law are ministered by our courts, [and the endorsing of the 
blackest crime by blackleg Governors]. We beseech the courts 
and officers of this district to do their duty, regardless of who 
the violators of law may be that shall su£fer the just penalty of 
their crimes." 

" It has come to a pretty pass that the honest men of the 
country have to arm themselves against the big, ugly, mean, 
sneaking thieves [of the gang] that are fouud here and there," 
[because the courts and Governors are their friends, dead or 
alive]. 

" It lias gone abroad that Garfiekl county has the most criminals of 
any county in tho Territory. The crime calendar shows this to be the 
case." 

I But the convictions did not show it, as the gang ivas in con- 
trol, and declared good evil, and evil good. ] 

'^ A J list rebuke. — I have noticed an article in the Journal entitled "A 
dangerous man to have around," directed at mo. As I am to bo tried on a 
serious charge, and as I boUeve the article diriictod at me Avas written with 
malicious intent, I hope you will allow me space to contradict the state- 
ments made." [As a general thing, in tho northwest a victim of the gang 
cannut gel a hearing in the press, which is generally collared and linked 
together to howl at and strike those that cannot strike back, and are suf- 
fering in the darkness of pain and sorrow.] .... "I have no objections to 
being examined as to my hxnacy, provided the Journal editor is put through 
the same ordeal, tho insane man to be committed to the asylum, and the 
other to be given his freedom. County jail, F. L. ." 

"Mr. L. . has certainly cause to complaiu at having his case tided in 
a newspaper [not so, if he is given an equal show to be heard, and which 
should be amipelled by law. ] No true and honorable journalist will attempt 
to create unfavorable opinion against a prisoner previous even to a pre- 
liminary examination." [But this is the general rule as against an out- 
sider]. "The reason for such a course is that L. .'s incarceration in the 
asylum or penitentiary, or execution, would end a long protracted attempt 
at steaUug an honest settler's home." 

" It is said that there is a determination among certain persons to do 
L. . great bodily harm should he be I'cleased on bail, or acquitted." 

"After driving L. . crazy by attempting to jump his ranch, the land 
sharks are now trying to i)rejudice public opinion against him in their 
malicious sheet. " 

"It appears that L.. claims some land which the gang Avish to get 
hold of, hence their anxiety to hang him or send him to the lunatic 
asylum. " 



Eeal Life in the North- West. 433 

*^ Land Trouble. — Mrs. M. . swore to a complaint cliarging W. , H., E., 
M. and R. with an assault with deadly weapons. It seems that the M. .s 
have located on some land over which there is a disjnite before the land 
office. The R . . s have been endeavoring to get control of this land, and 
last evening rei3aired to M . . 's house accomimnied by two or three others, 
and attempted to remove some fence 2^osts, when a son of M . . 's, aged 
about sixteen, ordered them to stoiJ, Upon this one of the R . . s pulled a 
pistol, and presented it to the head of the boy. His mother now appeared 
and grabbed R . . by the Avhiskers to stop him from shooting, when the 
other brother drew his j^istol and i)reseuted it to the woman's head." 



"Rev. "W. . jumped a land claim some time since, and started a man 
to work jilowiug it \\\>, but the neighbors congregated one night this week, 
fenced the claim for the original claimant and placed the jumper's plow 
outside the fence. " 

"The jury found K. . guilty of murder in the first degree. Hanging 
is too easy a death for a fellow avIio Avould kill a man for his homestead." 
[Yet when he is linked to the gang, the courts and Governors endorse his 
conduct and stab the homesteader. ] 

" The W. T. Press keeps the following notice printed in 
big, black letters at the head of its local column : ' Owing to 
the presence of burglars in our midst, our citizens are warned 
to have their firearms ready to give these midnight marauders 
a warm reception when they come around.' [But why not in- 
clude other secret midnight thieves, the more refined and expert 
robbers. ' Whether they had emerged from the mire of indi- 
gence, or crept from the bed of debauchery.' 

"You take my house when you take the in-op that doth sustain my 
house ; you take my life when you take the means whereby I hve. "J 

"A Tramp Boom." — [The refined and expert gentry had 
been "booming the country " to renew their flock of immigrants 
from the States, to fleece, and this is the kind of a go-by the 
victims get when shorn.] " 

"Eastern Washington is having a tramp boom, and it requires, in 
houses along the main roads, at least one i^erson to attend to the calls of 
tramps, and an extra baking of bread, etc., to furnish these vagabonds 
' something to eat. ' They should be remorselessly shut off, one and all, 
and serve all alike, adding the presentation of a shot-gun toemi)hasize the 
order to ' git, ' and give them five minuttis to travel beyond your farm. " 

[Provided they cannot give a pagan mystic sign, that is known to you. 
28 



434 Keal Life in the North- West. 

The editor of the foregoing belongs to a " mystic " charitable (?) order, and 
therein is the measure of his charity !] 



"The hme quarries there have mostly been covered by settlers under 
the homestead, jire-emption and other land laws, and have been worked 
for years. Recently several of the quanies have been jumped by those 
Avho claim a right to acquire them under the mineral laws. Of course, 
this has caused bitter feeling among the original holders, who have banded 
themselves together for forcible resistance against any attempt to oust 
them. They openly threaten to shoot the first man who attempts to take 
possession of any quarry, and 2>ublic sentiment xoill sustain them, should they 
thus take the law into their own hands." 

[And so would the courts and Governors, if the Jumper 
was an outsider. But even if the Jumper had no shadow of 
any legal or just claim, and was shooting his way through, to 
rob and ravage, and was thus hilled by one outside of the gang, 
and you, sir, discovered in the rank, festered remains a pagan 
" mystic " brother, oh, how you would intrigue and transform 
and howl the killing through the land and courts, with curses 
loud and deep — "A holy horror, cold-blooded murder, terrible as 
hell!''] 



[When one of the gang commits an unprovoked, cold-blood- 
ed murder, it comes out about like this, as per example :] 

" G. I. . ., Esq., came in on Tuesday's train. The trial for the shoot- 
ing of 0. . . by Mr. I. . . resulted in his being acquitted by the Jury. We 
understand that the Jury stood eleven for acquittal and one for conviction. 

It appeared from the evidence that 0. . . was "a bad man from Bodie" 
and had threatened to kill I. . . We are glad to see Mr. I. . . in our city, a 
free man in j^erson, and his reiautation cleared." [He belonged to the 
court Masonic gang.] 

The Ilasomc Press came out in an extra, stating that " the 
verdict gives general satisfaction," etc. " This aroused the in- 
dignation of the citizens, and without delay .a mass meeting 
was held and the following resolutions passed : " 

" Resolved, that in the opinion of this meeting, the shooting of our 
late fellow-citizen C. . . was unjustifiable. 

Resolved, that the statement made in the [Masonic] jaress, that the 
verdict rendered in the case vei'sus I. . . and T. . . , ' that the same gave 



Real Life in the North-West. 435 

general satisfaction' to this community, is untrue in fact and a libel upon 
the law-abiding citizens. 

Resolved, that the indecent manifestations of those [midnight gentry], 
who had been turned loose by a [packed] Jury, but not acquitted, in hold- 
ing a saturnalia over their victim's dead body, and crowning their crime in 
unlimited champagne, merits the direst condemnation of all law-abiding 
citizens. 

Resolved, that we pledge our hves, oiir fortunes and our sacred honor, 
to stand by each other in every honest endeavor to enforce the laws of our 
country, and to this end we will retain our organization and perfect the 
same from this day on untU the criminal classes of this county are punish- 
ed to the extent of the law. 

On motion a committee of twenty -five, to be known as a ' Committee 
of Pubhc Safety,' was selected by t^^e President, and notice of theii* ap- 
pointment will be given them by the Secretary." 

[And tlien innocent outsiders are made dire " examples " 
of, witliout recourse, " because tlie people clamor ! " while 
the real criminals of the gang, through mystic intrigue, are not 
even indicted ! 

Any one who asserts that " we have a good judiciary," is a 
liar and a thief.] 

" If anything further were needed to bring contempt upon 
the judicial system, it is afforded in the recent acquittal after a 
dastardly assassination." 

"A deliberate and cold-blooded murder, and a jury has 
[been packed to] pronounce him not guilty. Better abolish the 
system [of control by the gang], and let every man defend 
himself." 

" . . . . was acquitted, which shows that the court is a place 
wherein injustice is done." 



"The only safeguard our citizens have against burglars is, to dig up 
the old smooth-bore, load her with i^owder and shot, and lay for Mr. 
burglar." 

[But when you recognize in the remains of IMr. burglar a 
linked brother, you declare what a " horrible, frightful thing it is 
to take human life ! " Howl bloody murder / Endorse the rob- 



436 Keal Life in the North-West. 

ber ; declare the courts to be a place of justice ; and then com- 
plete the robber's job against " our citizen," — picnicing in the 
spoils and sucking his heart's blood !] 



" We learn that one O. . . 's house was blown up with powder one day 
last week. It seems that C. . . has jumped a widow woman's farm, and 
was ordered by some of the settlers to leave, which he refused to do." 

[To settle such a case in the courts would take many years. 
(It is a familiar and sadly true expression with those having 
ring influence at court: " If he follows me in the courts, it will 
break him up.") And the court gang would charge the widow 
from one to $20,000, or more, as she was able and inclined to 
" follow him up." And then, if the Jumper belongs to the 
gang, he would get the place, right or wrong. 

So, why should not the courts be either reformed from the 
mystic gang, or else abolished ?] 

. . . . " The war of words brought forth a shooting iron in the hands of 
Mr. T . . who fired at B . . , meaning business; and had not Mr. S . . grasped 
the barrel, the ball would, no doubt, have pierced B. . . 's heart. Here 
ended the first chapter." [And he was not even indicted.] 

" While leaning on the bar, with his back to the door, Mr. B. . enter- 
ed with a jjick-handle and immediately dealt S. . . a terrific blow on the 
back of the head. S. . staggered and turned towards him, remarking "you 
have killed me." B.. immediately dealt him another blow on the fore- 
head, when S. . . fell unconscious to the floor and was removed to another 
room. When B. . . heard that S. . . was not dead, he tried to get into the 
room to shoot him." 

[Nor was he (being a mason) even indicted. 

Why should the secret ring brethren be allowed to hold 
ofl&ce in the Government " of the people, for the people," and 
thus make it a horrible farce and swindle ?] 

"A week ago a watchman detected two men robbing the sluice box of 
the m. ^e. He fired several shots at them. The other day the decomposed 
body of a man was found near the mine. The hands and feet were eaten 
off by some animal. " 

[No sympathy is expressed or acted for the simple robber, 
and nobody is arrested or condemned for the act. But I know 



Eeal Life in the North- West. 437 

a reputed (and I never heard the charge denied) sluice-box- 
robber, who had more influence with the Governor for evil, than 
any whole community of citizens had for good, he being a linked 
brother. And should any of his plundered and tortured victims 
shoot him down for far greater and cruel crime than robbing 
sluice-boxes, his Excellency (?) would call out the militia and 
there would be big rewards, but what the murderer (?) would 
suffer once again. And wouldn t the ring press howl, when not 
engaged in ^^ laying in luail for Mr. burglar."] 

"A burglar entered the house of W. . . last night about 10 o'clock and 
coniraenced to search the house, when W. . . came home and scared him 
off. "W. . . saw the burglar leajj the fence; and, suspecting that something 
was wrong, pulled out his revolver and fired four shots at the burglar's re- 
treating fonn. A careftd search revealed that nothing had been taken." 

[To kill an outsider, even on suspicion of stealing, iu the 
dark, is held to be no crime ; but the more refined and expert 
linked midnight conspirator and thief must be protected against 
their victims by the State. Is this equal, just and fair ?] 

"Mrs. G. . . called her husband's attention to the fact, that a burglar 
was around, and was requested to ' listen. ' [As though he could not see 
plenty of more dangerous ones in the day time.] But refusing to 'do 
anything of the sort, ' she arose, and the burglar, not wishing an interview 
with her, took his leave. It is to be hoped that this burglar may soon run 
across some one who does not sleep like a log, and who keeps a loaded 
shotgun by his bedside." 

[But why don't you advocate the killing of shyster, court 
and other more expert and fatal burglars, and give their victims 
as much space for a hearing as you devote to the killing of 
petty, humble thieves ?] 

"Filled with shot. — A boy, named A..., and three companions were 
discovered by Mr. S. . . at four o'clock this afternoon in the act of stealing 
chickens from his premises. Mr. S. . fired on them with a shotgun, the 
charge lodging in the right arm and back of A. . . All of the boys were 
caught and placed in jail." 

[But the refined and expert confidence thief who should 
steal the whole ranch, chickens and all, would be a "prosper- 
ous business attorney," with a mystic handle to his name ; and 
it would be murder (?) to kill him for his crime.] 



438 Eeal Lite in the North- West. 

As to the shooting of a man by liis employee, a ring editor 
says : 

" Wliile, as a rule, we do not justify the use of fire-arms in the settle- 
ment of grievances, yet, the man who would not defend his A\'if e's honor, is 
not the kind of a man we emi^loj in any capacity," 

[Yet, they hang, or reduce to 'poverty, outsiders who do so 
against your pagan brethren, and you call it murder !] 



' ' He was awakened by the noise the thief made, and got up and went 
after him mth a shotgun. The thief was too quick, however, and made 
his exit just as the boy entered the room. Young G. . . then rushed out at 
the door in hojies of getting a shot. The httle fellow disj^layed a good deal 
of pluck for one so young. The thief got nothing whatever. " 



" A man, named R. . ., having some money on his person, was attack- 
ed by four men. A son of R. . . 's came to his father's assistance, ancl with 
a pistol, shot and killed two of the men, and fatally wounded a third. 'He 
was a dutiful son.' " 

[And all to save a few dollars ! And then howl " wnat a 
horrible thing it is, to take human life," when the robbers are 
your pagan brethren.] 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Land troubles, etc., continued. — " The Riparian fight. " — On Puget Sound. 
— Shooting for the tide lands. — A woman defending her claim. — Dyna- 
mite. — Vigilantes by the thousand. — Big money for the Court gang. — 
Lawyers instigating a fight. — Land jumping. — Coroner's inquests. — 
"Defective" laud titles. — A trick of the Coui*t gang. — "I tell you 
again to stop plo-ning — crack ! bang?" — Why Government lands are 
classified when they are all good for homes if good for anything. — 
The Court " bar " [gang] organizes trouble. — "Be ready." — "Para- 
sites. " — " Citizens arming. " — W7/.o gets ninety per cent, of all plunder ? 

— How TO KEAJ> NEWSPAPERS "BETWEEN THE LINES." 

u np 

1 HE jjeople who attempted to jumi3 the San Juan lime quarries have 
found it unhealthy business and have abandoned their plan." 



" TJie Riparian Fight. — This imper gave a full account of the land 
jumjDing, or rather water-front grabbing in the soitth end of the city [on 
Puget Sound]. 'At about 2:30 yesterday morning the agents of the com- 
jaany here obtained the tugs Celilo and Edna, and going up to the debat- 
able land began snaking the piles up. The parties who had the pihng 
done appeared on the scene, boarded a isile-driver, and Mr. B . . took a 
Winchester reiDcating rifle and began shooting at the comjiany's repre- 
sentatives. Some of the bullets struck the boat, and one went through 
the Celilo's cabin, and cut eight holes throiigh the engineer's coat, which 
was hanging on the wall. Mr. M . . narrowly escaped being shot as he 
was standing on the bow holding a lantern for the lines to be made fast to 
the piles to pull them out. There were some ten or fifteen shots fired. 
What the ultimate result will be cannot be ijredicted. " [Thus they "de- 
bated."] 

•X- 

"The crew of a pile-driver was held at bay to-day by a woman with a 
six-shooter. Her husband has built a cabin on his claim, and his wife 
guards the place in the daytime while he goes off to work. A pile-driver 
working for another claimant came to the enclosure and began tearing 
down the piles and stringers, when the woman drew a revolver and drove 
them from the scene. Many other similar cases are liable to be developed 
in the near future on the Sound." 



"The new residence of Mr. S. ., president of W. . colony, was blown 
to atoms with dynamite. The buildiug was valued at 82,000. This result 

(139) 



44:0 Land Troubles. 



is supposed to be the outcome of a quarrel between other settlers and the 
colony. " [The owner of the house, if an outsider, might be thankful that 
his enemies used dynamite instead of the coui-t gang. ] 

" The settlers in Harney Valley have organized a vigilance 
committee to protect themselves from land jumpers. Around 
here those who encourage such rascals are rewarded with 
office, [made Governors by the gang] and our settlers have 
themselves only to thank for it." [By not treating them as 
other burglars are treated.] 

" A gentleman from Harney Valley informs ns that there is 
now an organized body of vigilantes in that section, and that 
they propose to make it very lively for unlawful land jumpers, 
horse thieves, and [secret ring men] in general. He further 
informed us that he was a member of the association, and that 
he joined it because it was a public necessity to protect the 
poor man and his family from being robbed and driven from 
the land to which he is justly entitled." [By the ring Govern- 
or's " good judiciary."] 

" While P . . was moving a section of fence made by H . . , 
the latter armed himself with a gun, and shot P . . dead, the 
ball taking effect in the left breast, and passing through the 
heart." [Which means big money in the pockets of the gang.] 

" Last Sabbath, W . . shot and killed G . . while the latter 
was attempting to go through a field belonging to W . . . Both 
parties owned ranches, and had taken legal advice. W . . 's law- 
yer told him that he had a right to fence up the road ; and G . . 's 
lawyer told him that he had a right to cut the wires and go 
through and over W. .'s land; and when they met, only a few 
words passed when W . . fired a revolver at G . . , but missed 
him ; then G . fired at W . . hitting him on his arm ; then W . . 
fired again, hitting G . . in the forehead, killing him instantly. 
They were both steady, industrious and respectable men." 
[Which means more plunder for the gang, the two lawyer- 
"members-of-the-bar," being secret partners. Are burglars any 
worse?] 

" The difficulty occurred over a piece of land, when a fight 
ensued in which A . . stabbed one of the F . . 's severely. The 
one who was stabbed was not able to travel, nor in condition to 
be moved." [Another picnic for the court gang.] 



Vigilantes. 441 

"The jumping of land is the cause of considerable trouble 
[and plunder to the gang]. A man named C . . was killed by- 
three men whom he endeavored to dispossess. The coroner's 
jury returned a verdict of justifiable homicide in the killing of 
C..." 

'' M . . has been frightfully beaten while attempting to locate 
a ranch, by parties hired by a [masonic] ring of land-grabbers 
for the purpose of keeping settlers from locating on public 
lands adjacent to their ranges. Serious trouble is anticipated 
there in this connection." 

"At the place of the shooting he found the body of the slain man 
lying on the ground and his rifle by his side. He had been shot in the 
neck and heart. D . . and the H . . 's have been on ill terms for a long time, 
based on the ownership of a quarter section of laud, upon which the H . . 's 
settled years ago. The pajjers being ' defective. ' [A very common irickhj 
the court gang, and they call them ' errors !] " D . . jumped the land, and 
after a great deal of litigation his claim was confirmed by the court. Of 
course, there was a gi'eat deal of bad blood between D . . and the H . . 's 
growing out of these proceedings. 

D . . said, "I tell you again to stop jilowing," and raised his gim as if 
to put it to his shoulder, when H . . at once threw ui3 his gun aud fii'ed 
with fatal effect. This is regarded as the fii-st of many similar affairs that 
may occur on the same ranch." 

[Such is the curse of prostituted courts and their mystic 
"bar." Are they less dangerous and fatal than the less refined 
and expert burglar ? then why not "lay in wait" for them also? 

How many unhappy families are grieving in secret to-day 
at this lurking, expert tyranny that oppresses them, and the 
complicated and long protracted ruin that it has brought upon 
them ?] 

" E . . offered to file on a quarter section of C . . 's land C . . bought 
from the State as swamjD and overflowed land, but the State never had a 
patent from the Government. E . . erected a cabin on the land, and last 
night about fifteen men came there, and circling about the building, com- 
menced a fusilade -^-ith rifles, E . . came out, and standing in the ojjen 
field, kept up his end of the firing, aided by two or three frieuds. More 
trouble is feared, as there are many cases of similar disputed tracts. " 

[This classification of Government land {at all) was always 
(and intended so to be by the gang) a mysterious swindle iojlaw 
land titles and thus make business that would not he called burg- 



442 Land Teoubles. 



lary to he shot at for tlie court gangs, and to allow their pagan 
members to steal large tracts in the way of business. Govern- 
ment lands should not be classified at all, as it is all good for 
Jwmes, or it will be in time, if it is good for anything.'] 

D . . with two'otlier men went to tlie house on the j^lace, ijresumably to 
drive A . . away and take possession. A . . told him to go away ; D . . re- 
fused ; whereupon A . . took his Winchester and stood in the door and shot 
D. . dead." [More whiskey for the gang.] 

" The appeal to lawful authority in cases [against the gang] 
has been in vain, and the pistol is therefore resorted to. One 
man has been able to disperse an entire meeting of the gang, 
to rout a newspaper office, and to get clear as yet with a simple 
fine of $50 for contempt of court," [What could be more con- 
temptible than a prostituted court itself?] 

"A present feature of mining in this great mineral belt is the occur- 
rence of law suits. The T . . mine has been in litigation the greater pai-t 
of the year, and a great many others have also been troubled in the same 
way. The trouble has been okganized by a horde [Lodr/e] of pestifei'ous 
[masonic] lawyers ["the bak. "J whom it were well for the country to be 
rid of. The troubles at W . . have lately culminated in the killing of one 
man and the severe wounding of another, which may be construed as a 
lesson to jumj)ers and their legal [hnkedj abettors." 

" Be Ready. — "We mean for our citizens to keep their fire- 
arms at hand to shoot the [mystic ring] thieves, now spying out 
the land, [and secretly organizing with the courts and Governor, 
trouble and ruin to the people, wherein they live and lie] on 
the first attempt of them to rob." 

" Parasites. — What we say in another place about the 
[more refined and expert masonic] light-fingered gentry spying 
out this land, is to arouse our people to a sense of the danger 
there is in their being allowed to remain among us. We know 
we will incur their displeasure, but it is our duty to warn the 
people of dauger from such venomous parasites of human 
society. This class of men are liable to burn us out [or drag 
us into the prostituted courts] for purposes of plunder and 
spite against the people who refuse to be robbed. Remember 
these " professionals " [these refined, expert, "charitable" (?) 
thieves] rope in the unwary of town and country [prostitute 
the courts] and rob them. The matter is one into which every 



Vigilantes. 443 

honest man should look with alarming interest. As you re- 
gard your happiness and prosperity, arouse yourselves to vigil- 
ance, and see that our town is not infested with the characters 
named. We know some of the citizens are already arming 
themselves, and have even gone so far as to discuss the sight 
for a gallows from which to dangle these men. [The wreck of] 
our home is here, and we would be a cowardly accomplice not 
to raise the alarm in this perilous hour. The interest of our 
town [and country] must be protected by ridding ourselves of a 
dangerous class. Act at once, and noiv.'" 

[For over ninety per cent, of all the property that has ever 
been stolen, and of homes that have been plundered and 
wrecked and ruined in the northwest, has been done — not by 
the plain, humble burglars, for whom we "lay in wait " to shoot 
down — but the more refined and haughty, expert, linked and 
mysterious masons, that flaw the laws and prostitute the 
courts and Governors. Oyeb, ninety ! (90) per cent !] 

"He jests at scars that never felt a woimd." 

"Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more, 
Than when it bites but lanceth not the sore." 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Sample tragedy cases in the North-west, in brief, concluded. — What mem- 
bers of the gang can do to others with impunity. — Victims that were 
not venerated or sanctified by the gang. — About land. — "Shot him 
dead." — Stabbed him to the heart. — Stabbed him in the head. — Shot 
doT\Ti in cold blood. — The court bui-nt in effigy and why. — "A 
dark scheme." — " This is not the first time I have had to face lead to 
protect my rights." — "Served the fiend right." — Shooting a man 
down in cold blood for a few dollars. — Killing a man for alleged threats 
to btim his house. — "The hero of the hour," etc., etc. — From the 
press, and hoic to read it " between the lines." 

v_/ .... killed M. . . over a land claim. O. . . seen M. . . coming towards 
him with a gun, when he shot him dead." 

"T. . . and S. . . had some trouble in a saloon, when T. . . went out, 
armed himself with a big knife, returned and stabbed S. . . to the heart." 

" Capt. B. . . shot W. . . down in cold blood. The people burnt the 
court in effigy for turning him loose." 

"E. . . killed T. . . by stabbing him in the head. T. . . having struck 
him with his fist." 

" D. . . drew his pistol and commanded H. . . to leave the yard. H. . . 
(who was unarmed and drunk) continued to advaiice, and D. . . fired, 
shooting him through the body, and he died. D. . . will go free." 

" McC . . shot B . . ' There was a dark scheme on foot to get B. . . out of 
the icay.'' " 

"S. . . killed D. . . who was threatening to assault him or drive him 
out of town; shot him twice, though D. . . was unarmed." 

"D. . . shot and kUled L. . . The justice told him 'to shoot,' and he 
did shoot. The Judge discharged him on the ground that ' he had been 
threatened, and, therefore, acted in self -defence.'' " 

"M. . . shot (hitting him three times) and killed F. . . Both parties 
met. M. . . said he was ready, both fired at once. M. . . said, ' this is not 
the fii'st time I have had to face lead, to protect my rights.' " 

"F. . . shot and killed McD. . ., while attempting to crawl through a 
window into his (F. . . 's) house. The verdict here is that it served the 
fiend right." 

" P. . . shot and killed W. . . who was following P. . . with a shotgun." 

(444) 



Heroes of the Hour. 445 



"G. . . concealed himself with a shotgun behind the door of a black- 
smith shop and shot P. . . dead across the street." 

"A man under the influence of opium became enraged at Mrs. F. . . 
and daughters, and chased them through the house -with, a knife. A 
gentleman came to their rescue and shot the man. " 

"H. . . called K. . . over the fence and shot him five times." 

'* P. . . stabbed B. . . to death over a mining claim." 

" L. . . shot and killed D. . . for raising a singletree against him." 

"A one-legged man (S. . .), having been thus cripisled while in rail- 
road employ, being broke, was put oflf a train; and, as he was leaving, was 
shot and killed by a train man. Without warning, or cause of provocation, 
pulled out a pistol and delibei-ately shot the retreating tramps." 

" P. . . shot and killed 0. . . who was unarmed and retreating." 

"H. . . went to M. . .'s house with a shotgun to settle their difficulties, 
when M. . . wrenched the gun from him and clubbed him to death vnth. it. 
The verdict [of acquittal] meets with general approbation." 

"A. . . shot P. . . so he died, because A. .'s wife told him that P. . had 
abused her in dunning her for a debt." 

"S. . . shot and killed C. . . over money matters." 

"A most heinous, dastardly and cowardly murder has been committed 
by a number of thieving ['mysterious '] vagabonds, and better known as 
[Masons] stranglers. S. .., my brother, while under the pretended pro- 
tection of the [linked] constable and an assistant of his own choosing [an- 
other], conducting him, under the order of the said stranglers, to town, 
so that he could leave the country, in obedience to theii- orders, was, by a 
band of those [mystic] cut-throats, fired upon and cruelly murdered by 
them. And, not being satisfied with theii- dirty, cowardly work, after he 
was lying upon the ground, his face downward, and, no doubt, dead, as 
he already had received at their hands six mortal wounds, some one of the 
heartless [Masons], more steeped in crime than the rest, (if such a thing 
were possible), placed a gun to the back of his head and shot him through, 
the ball passing through the head and can-ying his whiskers into the 
ground. Then they departed and left the corjjse from that time till ten 
o'clock the next day, to be rooted around by hogs, or a prey for coyotes or 
canon birds, [Such is their ' charity. '] No effort Avas made, or has been 
made, to ascertain who committed this diaboUcal murder. Of course, the 
officers who had him in charge could not distinguish the murderers, though 
no masks were worn. No efforts were made by the [Masonic] officers to 
save my brother. It is supjiosed that the murderers are well-known, but 
no one has the temerity to ' blow ' as yet, for fear then* fate may be the 
same as S. . . 's. Nearly all good jjeople unite in denouncing this murder 



446 Heroes of the Houk. 



as a most -wauton, cruel, uncalled-for, dastardly, mean, contemptible, 
cowardly and damnable murder, that would cause the blush of shame to 
cover the brow of the most wanton savage. And when these [linked 
MasonsJ are called upon to give their final account, if there is one place 
more dreadful than another in the abode of the damned, it will certainly 
be assigned to them, and they will be doubly damned for countless ages 
of eternity. L, S. . . " 

"W. .. took a shotgun and, Sunday, followed a man up who had 
stolen his horse and, though unarmed, shot him down, and he expired in 
about an houi" in great agony." 

" Y. . . took Shen-iff B. . .'s pistol from its holster and robbed him 
of a few dollars in a saloon. B. . . then got another pistol of the bar- 
tender, followed Y. . . and opened fire, shooting him down." [Thus 
shooting a man down in cold blood for a few dollars.] 

" B. . . was discharged for killing a man on the ground that he had 
threatened to bui-n his house." 

"A Grand Juror gave K. . . to understand that he could get no re- 
dress at the hands of the court, and, therefore, advised him to take 
the law in his owm hands. So he went forthwith and shot the tres- 
passer dead in his own house. He is the hero of the hour, and the 
whole community think the shooting was justifiable." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Coukts a^'d laws of Washington and Alaska, condensed from the 
Press with explanations, etc. — Women as jiu'ors, etc. — "The infamous 
decision," etc. — "Complaints of court." — "A novel mUng," etc. 

1 HE time lias come when no one feels safe from the attack of the 
assassin, and the frequent inquiry is, what good man will be next to yield 
up his life for the reason that he possesses a Httle property, or has in- 
curred the disj^leasure of some [masonic] wretch who has no fear of the 
law. Scarcely a man dares to leave his ovm door without firearms in his 
jjossession, and women and childi-en are in constant teiTor lest the mur- 
derer may select them for his next victim. 

The graveyards are filhng up, and horrible crimes are forgotten almost 
as soon as committed. A person who willfully murders another for gain 
is entitled to no sympathy, and deserves to be treated more like a wild 
beast than a human being." 

How IT IS DONE. — "Be it remembered that the battle is generally won 
or lost when the tweKth juror is sworn." These words are remarkable in 
that they are so fearfully true ; remarkable, too, that they should be 
spoken by an attorney at such a time. It is equivalent to saying that 
jurors do not decide according to law and evidence. It is coming to be a 
recognized fact that the man who summons the jury has more to do in the 
decision of a cause than any other one connected "nith it. Let all who fail 
to comprehend a verdict remember and ponder these words, "The battle 
is generally won or lost when the last juror is sworn." 

[Yet jjeople often support candidates of a midnight brotherhood for 

sheriff and commissioners.] 

* 

* 

"The case of W. K. vs. J. K., to try the rights of property in relation 
to a certain colt, came up before Justice J. B. L. last Saturday. The jury 
gave a verdict in favor of the jDlaintiff. The costs of the suit amount to 
over §500. Eather an expensive suit over a §50 horse. The case will be 
taken up on a writ of certiorari." 

[Such is the jirice of justice in a masonic court.] 

N. B. — "Cai^tain 'J. B. L.,' formerly State librarian of , recently 

a justice of the peace and auditor of Pomeroy, was jjlaced in jail last night, 
in default of §500 bonds, to await the action of the grand jury, on a charge 
of embezzlement. Several charges of a Hke character are hanging over 
him." 

[Though the parties were robbed of large sums of money, the brother, 
being a licensed criminal, was dismissed by the good to him judiciary. 
And of such are the " courts of justice."] 

(447) 



448 CouErs in Washington and Alaska. 

"Judge G. . lias decided that titles to legislative acts may not specifi- 
cally express the object of the law, and still be valid. This was to have 
been exjjected, as Judge L . . held to precisely a dififerent opinion some 
time ago." 

* 

"Demurrer to the petition was overruled. In this Judge G . . decided 
that the insolvent law of the Territory is valid, holding contrary to a de- 
cision of Judge W. . some time since." 

[The profession of law is a vicious, expensive humbug, and should be 
abohshed.] 

* 

"Judge L. . has decided the local option law unconstitutional on the 
ground that it is an attempt to confer legislative j)ower upon the peoj^le at 
the polls. This is precisely what might be expected from such a source. 
His decision will carry no weight outside of his o^vn district. It is well 
known that the local option law, and especially the local option jirinciple 
of voting by the people on the question, was carefully considered by three 
ex- Judges, by Chief Justice G . . and by other lawyers far superior in 
ability to Judge L . . , and they unhesitatingly pronounce the law constitu- 
tional in every respect. It is a pity that judicial ignorance and stupidity 
of the L . . kind should be a stumbling block in the progress of moral 
reform. His appointment was a very bad one from the beginning, and the 
question as to who is responsible for it is jsertinent at this particular time. " 
[The masonic ring.] 

' ' Judge T . . has decided in a Yakima case that the local oj^tion law of 
the last legislature isvaHd. His decision is a strong document, and is sup- 
ported by a formidable array of judicial decisions. 

The turning point in the decision is, that the local option law is not a 
delegation of legislative power, but merely the delegation of the j)ower to 
determine u^Don what contingency the law shall be operative." 

[And the Supreme court decided both ways, so as to make business for 
the brotherhood and "members of the bar," at the expense of the peojjle, 
and making the legislature a useless body or branch of government.] 

"There is intense excitement all over "Washington over the decision of 
the sujireme court, declaring unconstitutional the act of the legislature, 
gi-anting sufi"rage to women. 

Last Friday the people of this coast were astonished by a despatch 
from Olymi^ia, stating the supreme court had declared the women's suff- 
rage lav/ void, and that hereafter Avomen could not lawfully vote or sit on 
juries in this Territory. 

Judge L . . in his opinion says, that the present code of Washington 
does not contain any authenticated act of the legislative assembly. It 
purports to have been edited and compUed by a private party. It con- 
tains no titles to acts, no enacting clause, no signature of the president, 
speaker, or Governor. The chapter, divisions and sections all purport to 
be the act of a private party. He says it is clear that this book does not 



Women as Jurors. 449 



contain an act or copy of an act passed by the legislative assembly, and it 
cannot be known officially «'7^rt^ it does or does not contmn.'' [Vet it was 
effective as against outsiders.^] 

"In this way all the acts granting women the right to vote are void, 
and if unable to vote they are incai^able of acting as jurors." 

' ' Chief Justice G . . says : ' From all that is decisive, and from much 
that is not decisive, in the very able oinuions just read, I totally dissent.' " 

"Following is the opinion of Judge D. . with some facts cited by him: 
' The opinion announced by Justices T . . and L . . holding the woman suff- 
rage law unconstitutional, does not have that effect. ' " 

"The same questions have been differently decided by three of the 

judges of the supreme court while hearing cases in that court If 

the opinions in these four cases are not decisive of the question, how can 
the opinion of L . . and T . . be decisive ? But if the woman suffrage act 
amending section 3,050 of the code is void for the reasons assigned in the 
opinion, then the act amending section 2,113 of the code, and fixing the 
time of holding the present term of the supreme court is void for the same 
reasons, namely, a defective title.'" 

"The title of the two acts is in substance and effect the same, and if 
one act is void, the other is void, and the supreme court is now in 
session without the authority of law, and all its decisions and doings have 
no vaUdity. 

I am not attempting to show the fallacy or unsoundness of the opinion 
in question, but only one of the results of such an opinion, that if ' all the 
acts gi-anting women the right to vote are void, ' the act under which the 
supreme court is in session is also void. [In other words, the lawyer 
machine is a humbug and expensive swindle.] 

The editor says : "Our readers can take each their own views of the 
matter set forth above, and when they get through studying on them, if 
they know any more about the real statutes of the question than they did 
before they commenced, they know more than the writer does about it." 

"The decision of the supreme court, declaring the woman suffrage 
act of 1883 unconstitutional, has been the absorbing topic of conversation 
along the streets to-day. In view of the special interest connected -vrith 
the case, representatives of the News have taken pains to secure exjires- 
sions of opinions from a number of our leading citizens." 

One says : " PubUc sentiment in Washington Territory is largely in 
favor of woman suffrage. TVTien I first came here I was prejudiced 
against woman suffrage, but my experience has shown to me that the 
good of society demands that women should exercise the same pohtical 
rights as men. This decision is a real calamity. It is made on purely 
technical gi-ounds and without reference to the merits of the question. 
The matter is still more to be regretted for the reason that it will impair 
pubhc confidence in exposition and adniiuistration of law by our courts. 
It is feared by many that the supreme court of Washington Territory is 
29 



450 "The Infamous Decision." 

inclined to keep in the old ruts and avoid the decision of questions upon 
their intrinsic merits. " 

Another. — "The court has stultified itself. The decision looks pet- 
tish. The supreme court having three times passed on the question, it 
should be recognized as settled. The legislature having been in session 
since the time of those decisions, it can be well considered that the peojile 
have acquiesced in these laws. Here is another consideration : If that 
decision goes to the extent that female juries, or juries in which there were 
women, are invahd, then all present indictments now pending, the Chinese 
cases included, and the conviction in the celebrated W. . murder case that 
is now before the suj^reme court, are invalidated." 

Another. — "The decision knocks the stuflSng out of things, and yet 
does not settle the question. It makes a muddle. If an offender is tried 
and convicted in the second or third judicial district by a jury composed 
in whole or part of women, an appeal to the supreme court would result 
in the annulment of the judgment ; whereas, if an appeal should come up 
from the first or f oixrth judicial district, based on the present decision, the 
judgment would be afiirmed, as it is known that Judge G. . and Judge H. . 
favor female suffrage and regard the law as constitutional, and Judge L . . 
and Judge T. . maintain the oj^posite \'iews." 

Another. — "I am sorry to see the woman's suffrage act declared un- 
constitutional. 1 was not at one time in favor of woman's suffrage, but 
since I have seen its workings in this territory, I am in favor of it." 

Another. — "I have sat in the Jury box with women and always found 
them good ' jurors. ' " 

Another. — "I am opposed to woman suffrage and glad to know the 
Supreme Court has rendered the decision it has." 

Another. — "I am in favor of woman suffrage, provided they vote the 
democratic ticket. " 

Another. — "I consider it a great public calamity. Woman suffrage 
has been a success in this territory." 

Another. — " I invariably found that women made as good jurors as 
you find anywhere. They had keen ijercei^tions and exercised most ex- 
cellent judgment. The decision was wrong." 

Another. — "I have always been opposed to woman suffrage and like 
the decision." 

Another. — A legal gentleman said: "A quibble, yes, sir, a quibble." 

Another legal gentleman: — "The decision is a splendid one. It will 
benefit the judiciary system of this territory. Women have not made good 
jurors." [They not being so safe to bribe or subject to mystic signs. 
And such decisions benefit the judiciary system by making the territory 
" a very inviting field of clover for the legal fraternity ," the cancer op the 

PEOPLE.] 

"A Sequence. 
The legitimate fruits of the Supreme Court are already making their 
appearance. The result is to create endless controversy, constant con- 



Courts in Washington and Alaska. 451 

fusion and instability of judicial jjroceedings under our statutes, for the 
decision will reacli and apply with equal force to half the enactments of 
the last two sessions of the Territorial Assembly, whenever the point i& 
raised [for a big pi-ice or ring influence] with respect to any one of them» 

Upon the convening of the District Court in Seattle, the United States 
Attorney raised the objection that no legal term of the District Court could 
then he held, since the act of 1885, changing the time of holding the 
terms of the District Courts, was hkewise imperfect in its title, for the 
same reasons upon which the decision against the woman suffrage act was. 
rendered, and, therefore, void. And further that, according to the prin- 
ciple involved in its own decision, no legal term of the Suijreme Court had 
been held, since its authority to sit at that time was derived from an act 
with the same imperfect title. He believed, in a rehearing of the case, the 
decision would be reversed, for the same Judges, if they were consistent, 
must decide that they had no jurisdiction, since they were not legally in 
session. 

Judge G. . . , after hearing arguments on both sides, determined to hold 
the session of the court, ' since it was clear in his own mind that both acts 
were vaHd, though he believed that the logic advanced by the judges who 
dehvered the opinion in the suffrage case wotdd render this act also void, 
because the title did not state the object of the act. ' 

In case of any con\dction at this term of coiu't, it is more than likely 
that an apjjeal will be taken [if the parties have plenty of money or belong 
to the gang] to the Supreme Coui-t, on the ground of no jurisdiction, and 
it will be interesting to see, how these same Judges will accept the fruits 
of their former decision." — Daily News. 

"The result of this decision, if adhered to by the District Courts and 
follow^ed to its legitimate end, will occasion endless litigation [and enrich 
the gang, to which the Judges belong, at the exj^ense of the peoj^lej. 
Titles to much jaroperty will be unsettled. The decision is disastrous. It 
will result in setting aside all the indictments against the Chinese conspi- 
rators and against those indicted for defrauding the Government of thou- 
sands of acres of timber land, and for perjury and like crimes. In some 
of these cases the statute of Hmitation has run, and no new indictments can 
be found." 

"In this territory half-breed Indians und Kanakas can vote. The 
only class of persons excluded from such rights are Chinamen, full-blooded 
Indians and Avhite, intelligent women. I say ' Shame T The plain, homely 
people of the practical Abraham Lincoln kind are almost without excej^tion 
in favor of the law." 

"The Infamous Decision. 

When teri-itorial Judges bang their hair and again undertake to annul 
legislative enactments and overrule judicial decisions by frowns and 
sophistry, they Avill do well to act with more circumspection. They will 
do well to consult authorities, and not indulge iu whims and vagaries. 



452 Women as Jukors. 



The recent opinions delivered bj two of the Associate Justices of 
"Washington Teii-itory [Free Masons] have received a scorching thi-ough 
the press, which, it is hoped, will serve as a warning to them and to others. 
The ' opinions ' have been reviewed and have been shown to be nothing 
but spui'ious and effusive gush. It has been shown, that in i^reparing the 
opinions, i)lain and well-settled principles of law have been disregai-ded. 
It has been shown that no constitutional question was involved in the case, or 
presented to the court for decision. 

The Judges travelled outside of the case and dragged in the consti- 
tutional question, and then decided it on jiiu-ely technical gi'ounds. They 
not only assailed the validity of the suffrage law, but the wisdom and iwlicy 
of such a law. [As though the people have not as much wisdom and are 
not as competent to judge of a pohcy as a few Masonic shysters.'\ That in 
doing so, they labored to uphold the doctrine that it is not one of the 
rights and privileges of women to engage in such professions, occupations 
and employments, as they may choose for a livelihood, and went so far as 
to compliment some [masonic] Judges for refusing to admit a woman to 
Ijractice as an attorney in their coui'ts. [iVb?- can anybody outside of the 
gang.] 

"It has been shown that the Judges have exercised powers expressly 
reserved by Congress in the organic act, and that they have oven-uled de- 
cisions of the supreme court of the United States and of other courts. 

To prove this, decisions Hke the f olloTving have been cited : 

"Acts of the Territorial legislative assemblies are vahd until disap- 
proved by Congress." 

Minros bank rs. Iowa, 12 Hon. 1. 

" Laws passed by the legislative assembly of a Territory, and approved 
by the Governor, are valid and operative until annulled by the disapproval 
of Congress." Territory of Wisconsin rs. Doty, 1 Pen. 396. 

It has also been shown that, in order to give plausibiHty to the 
opinions, an attemjit was made to wipe out of existence laws which were 
upon our statute books veiy long before. " 

[^Suchjiaics are made in laws purposely by the masonic gang for an in- 
direct tax on the people for their (the gang's) support. Of course, they 
could be corrected forthwith, but that Avould spoil the job and hurt their 
business. No Judge shotjld belong to a secret swokn midmight 

bkothekhood. ] 

Complaints of Cottkt. 
"It becomes so grave a matter that we cannot refrain from mentioning 
the complaint Ave hear against the district court just closed for its ineffi- 
ciency in behalf of justice and fail* deahng between man and man. They 
come from all classes of people in this county. They do not come from 
defeated litigants, but from persons who have no ends but justice to serve 
in their animadversions, severe criticisms, and comj^laiuts of the manner 
in which most of the business was done. It is surmised that money [and 
masonry] was used unlawfully to defeat justice in its metes between men. 



"The Infamous Decision." 453 

"Aside from such intimations and declarations as are referred to, vre 
can tmthfially say we have never heard so many complaints filed against 
one Judge and bis [masonic] coui-t dui-ing one term. All this complaint 
comes from the turn the matters of litigation took before the court and 
juries under instructions of the court. We call attention to these things 
so the matter may be studied. [It is practical masonry and money 
mixed together.] We have no doubt the people from their standi^oint 
have just grounds of complaint, and vre fear no good "will come from 
these matters. Good men and women do not hesitate to declare the 
whole court was a farce, and another Cincinnati affair with the riot left 
out ; and only the good sense of the people prevented the latter. 

Just here let it be said, there is too lax an administration of justice all 
over this country. There is too much sympathy for criminals if they hap- 
pen to have money [or belong to the gang] while a poor cuss [or outsider] 
is punished to the full extent of the law. The opinion prevails that if a 
man has money [and belongs to the gang] he can commit any crime and 
go unjjunished ahnost altogether. It is a dangerous period in the history 
of a country when the people loose confidence in the courts. If there 
was a prompt execution of the law we would not witness or hear of 
people taking the law into their own hands to mete out justice. [Ma- 
soniy] is too prone to evil to give it such unbridled license as it now 
has." 

* 

"Judge L. . in a case tried before him held the insolvent law good, re- 
versing Judge W . . and giving good reason for so doing. [And this they 
call "being learned in the law."] 

* 

. . . . " Judge J . . exi^ressed himself as strongly opposed to the resolu- 
tion, and stated that for years the district court had been nin in the interest 
of a few [masonic] attorneys, and stated that he had knowledge of such 
facts, and he made the charge advisedly." 

* 
"It seems a hard matter for the court here to get a legal jury; the 
prosecuting attorney had the Venire quashed at present term of court as 
he did in February." [And so the brother and ex- J. P. was "acquitted," 

this is a common trick Arith the gang, to pack juries.] 

* * 

"Great care was taken in selecting a Grand Jm-y, not to place any- 
body on the hsts who is connected with the Knights of Labor." [Which 
is hardly a secret craft, and yet members of the sworn secret gangs of 
anti-working masons and odd-fellows are put onto juries, and even as 
Judges, to try and judge full-fledged American citizens.] 

* * 
* 

" The [masonic] defaulter has been arrested at Chicago. Now the 
question arises, who wants him ? The county cannot afford to tax her 
people S700 or 8800 to send after him and then pay the expen.ses of his 



454 Courts in Washington and Alaska, 

trial, Tvliicli if it follows the course of some of tlie trials at the last term of 
court Tvould be only an exjiensive farce." [Had lie not belonged to the 
gang how different would have been the cry ?] 

"Our delegate ex^Dresses the fear that the forfeitui-e of Northern 
Pacific [masonic] railroad lands will involve citizens on its hne in pro- 
tracted and costly litigation, and that, therefore, it would be better to give 
the lands to the company. This is in effect to say that although the [gang] 
is not entitled to these lands, it should be jjermitted to hold them, because 
otherwise it will jjersecute settlers. It is a strange [masonic] doctrine, 
and in this day and generation rather a bold j^osition to take. Because a 
[gang] wants a piece of the jjubhc domain, private citizens [or outsiders] 
must stand back, with bowed heads, and meekly give way. We have 
heard this sort of threat before. Mr. C. P. Huntington, the well-known 
letter writer, expressed the same when he declared that if Congress i^assed 
a bill forfeiting the Texas Pacific grant, his [secret gang] would 'litigate 
the question in the [masonic] courts for twenty years. ' The doctrine then 
results in this : The ijeojile must surrender their rights on demand of [a 
secret gang], or be subject to ruthless persecution under the name of hti- 
gation. " [And blacklegs say, "we have a good judiciary."] 

"Were severally indicted for the crime of perjury, committed in 

making final jjroof to a tract of land [for a masonic ring.] said defendants 
had severally appeared before probate Judge, and made oath to certain 
statements m relation to the occupancy, improvements, etc., of the said 
land, and which statements were willfully false. The defendants by their 
[masonic] counsel, filed a demun-er to the indictment on several grounds, 
amongst which they claimed that a jirobate Judge was, under the law, not 
a i^erson to administer an oath in such cases, and that the crime of pei'jury 
could not be committed in taking an oath before such an officer. After 
argument by three of the [gang] the [masonic] court sustained the 
demurrer upon the above named ground, and the actions were dismissed 
and the defendants discharged from further persecution. This case has 
attracted a great deal of attention, and one of the defendants had been 
brought back from New York [at the peojale's exi^ense and profit to the 
gang] uj^on a waiTant issued ui^on the indictment," [which, however, 
was good enough to send other men to the penitentiary.] 

"To the jieople of Lewis county we will say, your doom is sealed. 
Nearly one-half of the property of the county is now exempt from taxa- 
tion. You have not even the right to apply to the courts for a redress 
of your giievances. [The masonic rings] will not i>ay taxes, neither can 
yoi; comisel them. You must work and keejj the taxes on your projjerty 
paid. If in the future the [masonic rings] demand of you to make a deed 
to it of your homes without consideration, you must do so, paying the 



Women as Jurors. 455 



scrivener's fees yourselves, for tlie [masons] are all-jjowerful, and you 
dare not figlit them. " 

* 

"It is proi^er, however, to say that at common law the courts have 
always had power to enforce reasonable charges for transportation, and 
that this interstate commission act therefore asserts no power that did 
not previously exist. Again, this law forbids discrimination, though the 
courts have always had power at common law to punish discrimination, 
and require the carrier to charge all persons who engage his services 
equally for the same service. 

But individual efforts to enforce these principles against the [masonic] 
raih'oads have long since been abandoned as hopeless." [Because the courts 
are jjrostituted with masonry.] 

* 
" Seattle [then a town of 8000 inhabitants] has a court docket em- 
bracing 404 cases, and a delinquent tax list of seven columns in veiy small 
tyi^e. She may not consider it a matter of boast, however, as did the boy 
who felt elated because his father had a mortgage on the family 
mansion." [But the Governor boasted that it was such a "good field for the 
legal fraternity " — that it had such a big cancer.] 

* * 
* 

"We overheard one of our oldest hardware merchants say that he sold 
more guns the last day of court than he has during the entire time he has 
been in business, and he further added, that almost every purchaser 
coupled his jsurchase with some remark about the failure of the coui-ts to 
protect Kfe and property, thus compelling men to take measures to protect 
themselves. " 

* 

[The following is a sample of how the masonic courts i^rotect prop- 
erty.] "A resident of this county borrowed $25 from certain money- 
lenders in Apiil, 1884, for one year at one jjer cent, per month. Not being 
able to meet the note, suit was brought against the party, and judgment 
obtained for the amount -svith interest amounting to $29 with attorney's 
fees at $50; costs of court, $64.90; to this must yet be added the sheriff s 
fees, which at the very least will bring the total to $150, or $125 more 
than the original debt; and yet they tell us [blacklegs do] there is justice 
in this free land. Shylock died too young." 

* * 
* 

"The two Indians in court pleaded guilty of attempting to rob 
[Blank] of fifty cents; [they not being odd-fellows] the Judge gave them 
respectively six and twelve months in the penitentiary. " 

[Though the Indians plead guilty] "two attorneys of this place will 
no doubt soon advertise a horse sale of the animals paid them for defense 
of the [above] Indians," [which was aU right Arith the Judge. And 
Indians are blamed for not embracing such a system and civilization.] 



456 "The Infamous Decision.' 

"A Seattle lawyer owns about 10,000 acres of land in the Palouse 
country." ["WTiicli represents i/^a^ 7nuch h.nm.a.n misery and pillage. Yet 
he is ijuffed up by the masonic press for his "success and many acres," 
while an outsider and full-fledged citizen is howled down as a hog if he is 
even wilHug to honestly earn and desires more than 160 acres of land.] 

* 

"In the case of the United States vs. [J. Freemason] and others, for 
defrauding the Government of pubHc lands, on trial this week, the court 
sustained the demurrer to the indictment, on the ground that the means 
employed in defrauding the Government were not sufficiently stated in 
the indictment. " [I will inform those who do not know that such flaws, 
if they are flaws in reahty, are done by prostituted officials of prostituted 
courts, by ring influence, or for a price, or both together.] 
"A Novel Kultng. 

Three unimpeached witnesses swear that the defendant was present 
and committed the offense charged. The defendant swears he was not 
there, and is corroborated by his brother, a small boy. Held by the 
court, that there was no evidence to go to the jury upon which they could 

find a verdict of guilty." 

* * 

"With the present [1886] prohibition agitation comes a desire to see 
the already Sunday law enforced. Attemjjts have been made, and how 
successful they have been, the following circular j)roves: 

' Before Justice [Freemason] , Ten-itory of "Washington t-.s. [one of 
the gang], for violation of Sunday Law.' 

' The natm-al query would arise, how is such a verdict possi- 
ble in the presence of such testimony, and under the law ? It can only be 
accounted for by the existence of [masonry and crime] in the courts. The 
fact was estabhshed that the saloon was opened on Sunday; that a brisk 
business was carried on, viz. : twenty -eight drinks sold in the course of an 
hour. The bartender testified that he tended bar that day besides clean- 
ing out the saloon. There was no e\'idence to contradict the testimony 
for the prosecution. 

The conclusion that a candid mind must come to is, that the saloon 
[and masonry] is supreme in its influence over the courts, that, while 
other occiiimtions [and men] miist be obedient to law, here is an occupa- 
tion [and brotherhood] that rides rough-shod over aU law, whether of 

God or man. " 

* * 
* 

" The jury in P . . 's case agreed in about an hour, finding him guilty of 
grand larceny as charged. "When P . . 's case was called, there was a rumor 
in court that he had fallen heir to 86,000 since his jailing for grand larceny. 

P.. was brought up for sentence. Judge [Mason] stated, that in 
order to give him a chance to reform, he would impose a nominal sentence: 
one week in jail." 



Courts in Washington and Alaska. 457 

[Why are not those who do not have $6,000 likewise "given a chance 
to reform," if the coui'ts are not prostituted ?] 

"Judge [Mason] sentenced J. L. to eleven years at hard labor for 
grand larceny." [He didn't have §6,000]. 

* * 

" The prosecuting attorney asked the grand jury to find a true bill 
against B . . ' for assault with intent to commit murder,' and they did so. 
Instead of making the same request as regards M . . , who was the most 
giulty, and who drew his deadly weapon Ji7-sl and shot B. ., he simjily 
asked the jury to find a bill against M.. 'for exhibiting a pistol in a 
threatening manner. ' Is this equaHty ?" 

[And yet men vote for ring men for oflfice. ] 

* 
" On crossing the track with his attention diverted, the engine started 
up "n-ithout the usual warning, and ran over him. At the conclusion of 
the plaintiff's testimony the [ring's] attorney moved, that the case be non- 
suited, which motion was granted by Judge [Mason] and the case termin- 
ated." [Where is such a victim's recourse ?] 

* * 
* 

"It is not thought the commissioners will make any changes in the 
licenses, as they have been ' ad\-ised ' that by pressing the matter hard, 
they would involve the county in a suit which would certainly result in 
ha\4ng the license law declared unconstitutional, there being a flaw some- 
wliere." [To be pointed oiit and declared by the coui'ts /or a price. ^ 

* * 

" But the action of our judiciary in the premises is only in keeping 
with innumerable instances of com-ts throughout the country in setting 
aside, upon the most tri\-ial pretexts, the enactment of the law-making 
power, until it aj) pears the most carefully devised statutes are not safe 
with the [masonic] bench and bar autocracy." 

* -x- 
* 

"We, as a peoi^le, are getting heartily tired of the legal loop holes by 
which red-handed murderers escape punishment, and as time goes on ajjace 
these methods of escape aj^pear to grow larger and larger. The law has 
no terror for the [midnight ring] evil doer, and unless such murderers are 
summarily dealt with, we may expect to see that class go on unchecked. " 

* * 
* 

" A corresiiondent at Sitka does not thinlf the establishment of a court 
is of much benefit to Alaska. With courts come lawyers, and with law- 
yers suits. " One of the first and most imj^ortant suits imjiending before 
the newly appointed Judge at that point is one brought by some of the 
Russian residents to restrain the Home for Indian Boys and Gii'ls from 
using certain lands appurtenant to its buildings, and which are essential 
to its future success. This coiTespondont thinks the school is of more value 
than the court.''^ [Certainly, masonic courts will be a curse to the country.] 



458 Women as Jurors. 



"How THE Laws aee Defied. 

If some future historian slioulcl chance to write a history of Alaska 
from its cession to the United States to the year 1885, the volume would 
not be read with any great degree of pride by Americans. Its sale would 
not be large. If a truthful history, it Avould be a story of lawlessness and 
defiance jf law. It Avould show how imijotent American law can be, and 
how worthless American officials can be. It would contain nothing to ex- 
cite enthusiasm, nothing that could win ajJiiroval. It would tell hoAV a 
dominion, sjiarsely j^opulated but an empu-e in extent, was transferred by 
Russia to the United States; how the white peojile who had settled w^ithin 
its borders were vastly outnumbered by the natives ; how the latter were 
harmless and no danger was ajDprehended from them; how there were 
strict laws against selhug liquor to them, and how thoroughly those laws 
were enforced. Then the historian might commence a new chapter with 
an account of how the Americans took j^ossession of the country ■with a 
tremendous flourish of trumpets. He might go on mth the account of 
how the seal fisheries were farmed out to a wealthy cori^oration of [free 
masons] ; of how there were no courts, no peace officers. 

Then he might tell of how after many years an unsatisfactory and in- 
complete government was granted the country ; of how a number of 
federal officials, judicial and executive, arrived ; of how, mth their com- 
ing, law breaking increased rather than diminished ; and of how they dis- 
regarded and connived at the breaking of the laws. He might tell how, 
instead of prosecuting those who brought liquor into the Territory, they 
encouraged such laAV breaking and themselves jjartook oj^enly of the 
liquor which should not have been in the country. He might make a 
fearful arraignment of American law and American officials. 

To one who knows the maddening effect of liquor upon the Northern 
Indian, there can be no question of the wisdom of Congress in forbidding 
absolutely the importation of intoxicating Hquors into Alaska. In a 
country inhabited by about a thousand white men surrounded by forty or 
fifty times as many savage and semi-civilized Indians, there is danger at 
any time, and that danger is esi^ecially great when to other things which 
might at any time j^rovoke hostihties, is added the power of intoxicants. 
A barrel of Avhiskey might at any time make ra%ing maniacs of the entire 
tribe of Alaska Indians, and the massacre of all the white jieoijle, residing 
in that jjarticular district, might easily follow. The "wisdom of the i?ro- 
hibition, then, cannot be doiibted. It is not a question of temi^erance, or 
anti-temperance, of i^rohibition or anti-jn'ohibition. It is a question of 
whether or not to provide for the safety of a small white j^opulation in the 
midst of an Indian country. Yet it is a notorious fact that the late officials 
of Alaska, executive, judicial and revenue, allowed liquor to be brought 
into Alaska, and ojjenly sold without making the slightest eflfort to restrain 
the traffic. Indeed, it is equally notorious that a number of these officials 
habitually bought liquors by the drink. When asked if the traffic were 




^ 

< 



O 

I— I 

Q 



460 "The Infamous Decision." 

not illegal, their answer was usually a laugh. How can the Indians be ex- 
pected to respect laws which are so openly ■v'iolated by the men who are 
sent out to see that they are enforced ? 

The statement innocently made by a Juneau miner recently has a 
whole volume of meaning in it. He explained the state of affairs by say- 
ing : ' Formerly we had vigilance committees and compelled the store- 
keepers not to sell liquor, molasses and firearms to the Indians, but now 
that the judges, attorneys, and United States marshals have come, we are 
entirely without protection. What can we do ? ' That was said innocent- 
ly enough, but had it been meant for sarcasm, nothing could have been 
keener. Truly, what can they do ? 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Coukts of Oregon, Montana, and British Columbia, condensed from 
the Press, with explanations, etc. 

i HE revenue of tlie county is absorbed by the expenses of the justices" 
courts, very few even of those most interested, and whose attention has 
been called to the matter, realize the enormous amount expended in pay- 
ment of fees and expenses in these courts. 

It is not an uncommon thing that a preliminary examination, result- 
ing in the committal of a criminal for trial, cost the county several hundred 
dollars, [besides what is often bled from more or less innocent ^dctims by 
court lawyers.] 

An uninformed observer would naturally supi^ose that so simple a 
matter as preferring a charge, issuing a warrant, a brief inquiry into the 
facts, and holding the accused to ausAver, would be a comiDaratively inex- 
pensive proceeding, but the fact is otherwise. When to the amount con- 
tributed by the county for the maintenance of these retail justice shops is 
added the cost of a vast amount of litigation directly encouraged, if not 
instigated by them, the aggregate is appalling. 

It is the duty of taxpayers to make a dihgent inquiry into the cause 
or causes of this state of affairs, and if jjossible, to devise a remedy. [The 
remedy is to keep the gang out of office.] 

There is great competition for this ruinous business, for, while each 
precinct has its justice, the juiisdiction of the said justice extends over 
the whole county, and they consequently become so many competing 
shoi^s. The plaintiff who, out of the entire list, selects a single justice [or 
is a brother in the gang] before whom to bring his action, is a customer 
entitled to consideration and is rewarded by a judgment in his favor. 

Every shyster at the bar has his favorite jiistice, and expects success in 
proportion to the amount of grist he can bring to the mill. 

Actions are brought on the theory that the plaintiff [if a mason] 
always wins, which never would stand the test of proof. 

Every justice has his constable and two or three hangers-on [all 
masons] ready to be sworn as sjiecials, all actually hunting up business 
for their shoj). 

The fee system contributes largely to the present state of affairs. If 
the justice and constable had each a salary sufficient to compensate them 
for their services, and fees were paid into the treasury, it is possible that 
there might be less diUgence in creating business, but in all probabihty 
no one would be loser thereby, and matters in which justice and public 
interests are really involved would not suffer for want of attention." 

1,401 J 



462 Courts in Oregon, Montana and British Columbia. 

''Nor ember 2-5tli, 1886. 
To the Editor: 

In your paper yon seem to lament that certain phases of the proceed- 
ings in regard to the Balch children have never been examined in court. 
Several years ago those points wei'e presented to and urged upon the cir- 
cuit and sui^reme courts as the principal points in the then jiending Balch 
case. But each court declined to pass upon those jioints, though jsre- 
sented by proj^er pleadings, in a pro^^er suit, and -with voluminous testi- 
mony to support them. The circuit court went so far as to decide once 
on the case, that the acts complained of were fraudulent, but it afterwards 
went back of this decision in the same case, and threw the whole case out 
of coui't on some pretense of a defect in the ijleading which had never been 
raised or suggested by the attorneys upon either side in the case, and had 
never been previously suggested by the court, though a second argument 
of the case was had in the same court by the court's order. On ajjpeal to 
the supreme court, the pretense upon which the case had been thrown out 
by the lower court was deemed so trivial, that it was never mentioned bi/ the 
court or attorneys on either side." 

* 

"The bank thief has been sentenced to a term of one year in the 
penitentiary. Yesterday the wretched burglar, who entered a house at 
night in the hope of being able to extract some loose change from the 
pockets of the owner's jaants, and got instead a well deserved charge of 
buckshot in the back from his gun, was sentenced to a period of nine 
years in the penitentiary, and every good citizen applauded the decision 
of the Judge. To-day, a man who has systemetically stolen for a jjeriod 
of months, until the sum stolen aggregated several thousand dollars, is 
given one year. What sort of pressure and how much of it to the square 
inch was brought to bear upon Judge [Mason] ? 

"Judge to [odd-fellow]. — 'You stand charged with appropriating 
money belonging to the depositors in your bank ; are you guilty or not 
guilty.' Odd-fellow. — ' Your honor, I did borrow .$9,000, merely to spend 
on a pleasure trip.' Judge. — 'Only boiTowed it? I thought as much; 
but 0"vving to our miserable laws, I will "be compelled to ask you to change 
your residence to Salem for one short year. In the meantime, before your 
departure, I would be happy to have you call and take dinner. ' " 

"Judge [Midnight] to Workingman. — 'Well, sir, you are charged 
with attempted burglary, what have you got to say ?' " 

Workingman. — "Nothing, your honor, but that I had been sick for a 
long time, not able to work, and my wife and babies were star-ving. I 
went to the baker shop and knocked at the door, intending to ask the 
baker for a loaf of bread. Not receiving any answer to my knock, I tried 
to open the door and was arrested." 

Judge. — "You miserable whelp, you are guilty of the crime of 
attempted burglary. I sentence you to the penitentiary for nine years. 
We must make an example of such as you. The court stands adjourned." 



Courts in Oregon, Montana and British Columbia. 463 

"This Question awaits an answer. 

February 7tli, 1887. 

To tlie Editor : 

Woiikl any law the legislature can enact have any effect except to get 

np big suits, so long as the [masonic] ring owns the supreme court, and one 

of its judges is the ex-Governor under whose ruling the ring gets its title?" 

* * 

* 

"Some little time ago H.. was arrested and charged with entering 
the house of B . . with burglarious intent. He was held to answer before 
the Grand Jury, which body indicted him on a charge of ' invading the 
premises Avith the object of committing rape. " H.. was allowed to plead 
guilty of simple assault, and was fined $50. The prevailing opinion of 
l)ei*sons who claim to Joiow is, that there never icas anything in the case. 
[To simply charge an innocent jierson A\dth such a crime as rajie, bHndly 
jirejudices so many of the unthinking cattle against him that with a j^i'os- 
tituted court and press he can easily be raih'oaded through to prison under a 
long sentence for pillage or revenge. I know of such victims — one per- 
sonaDy, ■with a large family. His innocence was established beyond dis- 
pute; the witnesses against him recanted and fled the country; the peojDle 
and jury petitioned for his release. His masonic Excellency (the Gov- 
ernor) was playing cards and drinking whiskey when the petition was 
offered to him; he repHed, to ' bring it to his office the next day when he had 
time to spend on such business, ' at which time he said, ' we have a good 
judiciary,' and without the [masonic] Judge the petition is worthless, with 
the [masonic] Judge I will ' consider' it ; his honor (?) declined to 'inter- 
fere with the cause of justice,' and the victim is left to languish seven 
years in prison. ] 

' ' Another Investigation. " 

"Witness testified that Judge [Links] was under the influence of 
liquor so often that business suffered; had seen him go to sleep on the 
bench while important cases were being heard. The delay in appointing a 
successor to Judge Links cost the district from $75,000 to $100,000, and 
had also cost the Government a large sum. 

Ex-Chief Justice Blank was also before the committee; he testified that 
Judge Links gambled while holding a term of coui-t; that he played poker 
for money one Sunday afternoon, while during the morning of the same 
day he had delivered an address before a Sunday school. On other occa- 
sions he played ' stud ' poker and faro for money, liquors and drinks, and 
had been at a dance given by a colored woman of bad repute, and was fre- 
quently drunk when on the bench." 

[The folloAving is a sample of the proceedings of a miners' court with- 
out any law-books, blackleg ' bar, ' or other needless expense. ] 

"The coui-t in his charge to the jury said that they must strip the 
case of technicahties, regarding no law but right and wrong, no test but 
common sense. They listened with apiiroval, and at once proceeded to 



464 Courts in Oregon, Montana and British Columbia. 

disagree on a -sital point ; some wanted to liang Sim, who liad been proven 
guilty of bribery, while several wanted to bang Alcalde Eogers. This dan- 
gerous phase soon jDassed away ; the jury found a verdict for the plain tiflf, 
and left the sentence with the court, where it evidently belonged. Judge 
Hayden then, amid breathless silence, announced his decision — Sprenger 
was to be reinstated in all his former rights, as half owner of the cabin, 
tools, proAdsions and claim, and Sim was ordered to pay the costs of his 
partner's sickness. The court then adjourned. 

But some of the evidence offered had revealed so much rascality and 
malfeasance on the part of Alcalde Rogers, that none of the miners were 
satisfied to let him longer hold the office he had so disgraced." 

"The WAXiKEE-TEAii Case. 
James D. Walker, a citizen of San Francisco, loaned to B. Goldsmith 
,000 for which he gave his note, of Avhich the follo'\\'ing is a copy: 



PoKTiiAND, Oreg. , August 19th, 1874. 
Two years after date, without grace, for value received, I promise to 
pay James D. Walker, or order, SlOO,000, Avith interest theron at the rate 
of 1 per cent, per month until paid. Interest to be paid monthly, and if 
there be default in payment of interest for the period of twenty days, then 
the whole sum, principal and interest, shall, at the option of the holder of 
this note, be immediately due and payable. (Signed) B. GoiiDSMiTH. 

To secure this note Teal and Goldsmith put up a large amount of real 
estate, transferring it to Hewitt as trustee, with an agreement that if said 
note became 30 days overdue, He-witt shall, after demanding payment, seU 
the land on 30 days' notice. At the end of two years (Aug. 19th, 1876), 
$96,750 of the note remained unpaid. On October 18th, 1876, Goldsmith 
and Teal obtained a second agi-eement for an extension of time for one 
year fx'om that date for the payment of the note, and Teal and Goldsmith 
put up more real estate as before. The second agreement was signed by 
both Teal and Goldsmith, and recited the first agi-eement and note, and 
l)rovided that in consideration of the extension G. and T. "undertake and 
agree that the said G. "wtII promptly pay " the interest when due and the 
principal at the end of the year, and that, in default of payment of jirin- 
cipal or interest, the whole debt shall become due, as provided in the first 
agreement and note (/. e. the principal being unpaid at end of the year 
HeAntt shall, when it is 30 days over due, sell on 30 days' notice; and if 
the interest be in default, whole debt to be due (d the option of Walker.) 
The agreement then declares — that W^alker agrees to extend the time for 
payment of the principal and interest one year or until default in jmyment 
of interest, and no longer; but if default be made in payment of interest, 
the whole debt with then accinied interest ' shall become due and payable 
as in said note specified,' (i. e. at Walker's option.) 'It is distinctly under- 
stood and agreed by the parties hereto, that the agreement of August 19th, 
1874, is not annulled, vacated or set aside by the execution of this agree- 



Courts in Oregon, Montana and British Colujibia. 465 

ment, except in so far as the same may ccmjlict with this agreement; in all 
other respects the two instruments are to be taken and constnied together. ' 
Default was made in the jjaymeut of interest Jan. 21st, 1877. Plain- 
tiffs commenced suit to foreclose Se^Dt. 26th, 1877, one month before the 
year exjjired, in the exercise of their oi)tion. Defendant (Teal) claimed 
his projjerty was discharged because Hewitt and Walker did not commence 
to sue him soon enough; and also claimed that he was not a guarantor of 
the note under said contracts. Boise held, Teal's property was bound; but 
Kelly and Prim decided that the property was discharged from ijayiug the 
debt, because Walker did not commence suit against Teal and Goldsmith 
soon enough. By which decision Walker lost, perhaps, $50,000." 

"It is not a little smgular that all these decisions are made practically 
to favor the vicious and the criminal. There is not one, we venture to 
say, among all the decisions of our Suj^reme Court, that has rendered 
justice more certain or more decisive. These technicalities are always 
found to favor the side of injustice [and Masmiry'\ , always tend to override 
equity, are always found to shield [Unked] criminals from the just x^uuish- 
ment of criminahty. 

This kind of thing will doubtless make lynching more frequent." 

"Money, ]Masonky, and a Sandbag. 
Bridget Blank is hajjjjy now, and can boast of being the first woman 
who has went from the United States to the Queen's dominions and run a 
Jury to suit herself. Bridget and her husband went to Victoria some time 
ago to reside. She then left her husband there, to attend to business, 
while she came to P. to look after her interests here. A few days after 
she left, her husband killed a man with a sand-bag. He was aiTested, and 
Bridget was notified of the fact. It did not take her long to act. She 
quietly gathered up $30,000 of her accumulated Avealth, and, boarding a 
steamer, announced her intention to clear her husband, if it took every 
cent of it. The charge of the Judge to the Jury was almost um-easonably 
strong, but not^rithstanding that facta verdict of ' Not guilty' was brought, 
which so exasperated the Judge, that he ordered the iDrisoner turned loose 
and advised him to 'sandbag the Jury,' much to the amusement of Bridget, 
who coyishly closed one of her eyes, and remarked soto voce that Ireland 
had made one portion of the Queen's dominion very tired, that she 
knew of." 



30 



CHAPTER XXV. 

The Courts and laws of Califoenia and the States, condensed from 
the Press, with explanations, etc. 

ID LANK lias been found not gnilty " by the jury. It lias come to this. 
A man of friends and influence may deliberately, without cause or provo- 
cation, shoot his fellow-man down upon the streets, and then come before 
the courts of this country, stand a mock trial, and go free. This is why 
mob law prevails to such an alarming extent in our land. It is a fearful 
thought. Just as certain as there is a world, things are getting into an 
appalling shape. That the killing was dehberate murder, we believe no 
man doubts. And yet he is acquitted by a jury of twelve [masonic] men 
acting under solemn oaths. We believe these fellows to be perjured 
scoundrels and detestable hypocrites, whose disgraceful conduct is a burn- 
ing, blistering shame upon the people of the United States and our com- 
mon humanity everywhere. This is past endurance, it must be corrected, 
or the fall of our institutions is inevitable." 



" The supreme court of nearly every State in the Union, including 
California, can interfere in murder cases between sentence and execution, 
and grant a stay of laroceedings, review the case, and send it back for trial 
over again on ^ovae flimsy pretexl or technicality. These loopholes are very 
convenient to [masonic homicides]. The law makes the bench of the 
supreme court both Judge and jury, and this has often led to exasperating 
delays of justice. The case of H . . , one of the murderers in the county 
jail, is an illustration of the force and sinister effect of legal technicalities. 
He has been tried three times, and on the first trial was convicted of a 
most brutal and revolting homicide. Yet on the flimsiest of legal quibbles 
the sujireme court reversed the decision of the superior court and re- 
manded the case for trial again, and now nearly four years have elaj^sed, 
and still the man is wearying justice and menacing the moral sentiment of 
the community he has outraged. And, as is usual when such cases are 
remanded [for a big price or secret influeyice] , two subsequent trials have 
resulted in jury disagreements. Witnesses have disappeared, public in- 
terest in the case has partially died out, and the ghastly crime, which at 
first caused a shudder of abhorrence, has become almost a reminiscence. It 
is not suiprising that in view of facts Hke these, the better classes are dis- 
gusted with the operation of the [masonic] machinery of our so-called 
courts of justice." 

" Confession of ffuilt not sifflicien/. — M. W., who has been under trial 
for perjury, was acquitted to-day. The jury was out only fifteen minutes. 
Much surprise is expressed [by outsiders] at the verdict, as M. W. co7i- 

(466) 



Courts in California and the States. 467 

fessedhaving pei'jnred heraelf, but the jiiiy acquitted on the ground that 
the statement of guilt was not established." 

In the district court, this afternoon, Freemason, charged Mith mui'der, 
■who had been on trial a week, was acquitted by the jury. It appears that 

the murdered man called Mason the usual western pet name, a " s of a 

b ," The j my in its report decided that a fellow, who called another 

such a name, desel•^•ed killing on general principles. [But had Mason been 
killed for the same thing by a Christian, the courts would have called 
it a "cold-blooded murder."] 

"In a recent case where there Avas a flagi-ant miscarxiage of jiistice, 
the Judge told the jury that 'they had violated their oaths and had 
disregarded the testimony, and that a jury composed of Indians would 
have done better than they,'" 

"The graders of the S. P. E. E. were suddenly brought to a stand- 
still last Wednesday by J. H. Moore, upon whose land they were tres- 
passing. Moore ajjpeared with a Winchester rifle and a revolver, while 
several of his farm hands were armed with a variety of guns. Negotia- 
tions are now pending between the proprietor of the ranch and the rail- 
road, and if the right of way cannot be bought, the entire ranch vdW 
be purchased." [^Tliis tons his only recourse, as the courts are sheei' tools of 
the masonic R. R. Co. ] 

"Further, the influence of the raiboad corporations at the land- 
office in Washington has been a paramount influence, no matter undei' 
xchat administration or who was Secretary of the Interior. [Just so he was 
a mason with whom the brethren could secretly and safely trade. ] The 
first extraordinary advantage gained was in 1857, when Black was at- 
torney-general, on the appHcation of certain railroad companies for 
certified hsts of then.' lands before the lands were earned. The attorney- 
general held, that these lists could properly be furnished. What next ? 
Later, the Secretary of the Inteiior held, that a complete legal title was 
conveyed by such certified Usts, and that they were equivalent to patents 
and that he could not reAiew the acts of his predecessors ! This was a 
short way of disiiosing of some extra million acres of land which had 
never been earned, but of which the country was plundered. The power 
of these [masonic] corporations has been a controlling power, not only 
in securing extraordinary grants of land, but in the successful retaining 
of immense areas of land after their forfeiture. 

They have invariably succeeded in their claims against the Govern- 
ment in aU controversies touching their land grants, where the Govern- 
ment, or those holding under the Government, were parties. This is a 
broad statement, but the reader need only to look back to the record for 
the last thirty years to verify its truth. In other words, the [masons] have 
controlled in the land-office, in the interior department, in the law department, 
and in the legislature. The Indian, who, as the fable runs, expressed his 
three wishes by demanding, first, all the rum in the world ; second, aU the 



468 CouETS IN California and the States. 

tobacco in the world ; third, more rum: faintly shadowed forth the raven- 
ous greed of those [midnight] monsters. The [secret] powers which con- 
trol at the seat of Government, also control the special legislation in a ma- 
jority of the States. I do not now speak of what is termed corrupt influ- 
ence, that is, the influence of unblushing, direct bribery. I refer to the 
influence of [masonic] x>ower, that sort of i^ower which should alarm every 
one of us. For it compasses society ; it has to do with every small and 
large town and ^dllage ; its connections are unbroken. 

Put yourself in opposition to this power and you will quickly com- 
jjrehend me. Kesist in the courts an illegal encroachment on your 
jiroperty ; bring suit for damages for injui-y to certain vested rights ; 
endeavor to restrain from a cruel and inexcusable tresi3ass, and you 
will speedily find yoiu- proceedings crippled by interlocutory motions, 
by temporaiy injunctions, by dilatory orders, until, unless you have 
both, money to pay for the defense against these harassing methods [of 
prostituted courts] and the courage to continue ["twenty years"] to the 
end, you will abandon the attempt to maintain your lights, or perhaps 
accept some humihating sum as a comj)romise, which does not even 
seiwe to defray youj- legal expenses. This is an every day experience. 
They are grasping, deceitful, and unscrupulous. No court or legislature 
will interfere to check the career of [masonic] corporations more jDower- 
f ul than courts or legislatures, [midnight lings] , ever vigilant, ever active, 
with a legal machineiy jjerfect in every ai^pliance, and a treasury in- 
exhaustible. 

It is imjDOSsible, to j^roperly characterize the methods, or to picture 
the widespread distress caused by them. The history of the past years 
is filled full of these unhappy illustrations, and they are so glaring, that 
it seems incredible the country does not take the alarm." 

"Blank, charged with the murder of 0.., was to-day acquitted by 
the jury. The alleged cause of the killing of C . . is stated to be that 
he was on terms of criminal intimacy Avdth Blank's wife." [Which 
always acquits a mason or odd-fellow.] 

' ' A murdei'er hanged. 

C . . was hanged here to-day for the murder of Blank. The crime 
for which C . . suffered death was the murder of Blank, who had threatened 
to kill C . . on different occasions, and had been criminally intimate with 
his wife." But this is no legal excuse for an outsider against one of the 
gang.] 

"July 2nd. — Blank, charged with intent to kill, has been acquitted. 
Friends of good government think that a moneyed [or masonic] man 
cannot be con\dcted of murder." 

"But the gilded [mystic] hand, which shoves by justice, must not be 
strengthened by multiplying mihtia regiments — the people -w-ill not stand 
that — but by stopping the traffic injuries, and by such an administration 
.of just and legal laws as shall meet the approval of the masses of 



Courts in California and the States. 469 

mankind in whose instincts justice lias its safest and strongest earthly 
throne." 

"Ex-chief Justice David S. Terry, who has been the chief counsel for 
his \yiie during the entu-e litigation [of many years, wherein one Judge 
would decide one way, and another the opijosite, and perjury was openly 
and confessedly practised without rebuke or isuuishment] , was present 
with his wife to-day, Sept. 3rd, 1888, in court to hear the reading of an- 
other decision. When Judge Blank was about half through reading, ]\Ir-.. 
Terry jumped to her feet and asked the Judge if he was going to order 
her to give up the contract [of her former maniage with Sharon and which 
had been declared valid by two courts]. Judge Blank told her to sit down. 
Mrs. Teny's face turned white -nath passion and she cried, ' Justice Blank, 
Vte heav that 7/ozi have beeti bought / We would Hke to know if that is so 
and what figures you hold yourself at. It seems that no person can get 
justice in this c oiirt, unless he has a sack. ' 

Judge Blank told a marshal to ' remove that woman from this court 
room.' The marshal gi-asped her arm, and in an instant Judge Teriy 
arose and exclaimed that no living man should touch his wife. With this 
he dealt the marshal a terrible blow on the neck with his fist, which sent 
him across the floor. 

Then, with several dej^uties and by-standers, Terry was removed. 
Mrs. Terry was also taken from the room and locked in the marshal's 
office. 

A deputy was placed at the door, when Teny advanced upon him and 
demanded admission, which the deputy refused. Terry put his hand in 
his ijocket and drew forth a dangei'ous looking dirk ^\^th a blade eight 
inches long, and, with a curse, held it above his head and declared he 
would stab any man who tried to keep him away from his wife. Terry 
was then locked in the room with his wife. 

A satchel, which Mrs. Terry had dropped in the court room during 
the excitement, was found to contain an English bull-dog revolver with all 
six chambers loaded. She was turning to open the satchel just before she 
was ljut out of the court room. " [If the courts are not reformed with 
anti-mason ballots, lead and steel -svill be resorted to by victims, who will 
be upheld by the people. ] 

' ' The case of Mrs. Myra Gaines, has now, after about forty years in 
the courts, been decided by the Sujireme Court in her favor for nearly two 
milUons of dollars. The decisions of the courts below were also in her 
favor. She has spent a large fortune and a hfe-time on this suit, which 
nothing but some egregious defect in the legal system or some criminal 
complicity on the part of the [Masonic] courts could have kept so long 
from a final decision. And now the intention is to cany the case by some 
extraordinary alleged right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United 
States, where it could not be reached in less than five years, and that at 
enormous expense. 



470 Courts in California and the States. 

The i^rospect for a woman near four-score, and "well wom out both in 
purse and mind by long litigation, is not bright; and the question what 
such laws, as have permitted all these delays, are worth, is a pertinent 
one. The case is aggravated, if possible, by the fact that Mrs. Gaines is 
exceedingly liberal and charitable, and means to bestow her means, when 
recovered, in founding and supporting institutions for the benefit of the 
working classes and the poor. She is, in fact, the Peter Cooper of New 
Orleans." 

"Mrs. Gaines is a beautiful example of the effects of the legal system. 
Eecently a decision has been rendered in her favor, but even if it could be 
carried out, she declares it would not benefit her, as all her interest has 
been absorbed by a syndicate of lawyers and speculators. [A secret gang 
required by prostituted courts. ] In other words, she is in the same boat 
with McGarrahan and many other veterans, who have spent years in i^ush- 
ing their claims, only to find in the end that the lawyers and [Masonic] 
lobbyists [that blackleg officials compel an ajjpHcant for justice to emjDloy 
and load with money,] come in for any coin that may be secured. " [Is 
such a system of robbeiy any better than anarchy ?] 

"There are 860 superfluous words in every deed, and 1240 in every 
mortgage; and the j^eople of New York pay every year $100,000 for the 
recording of superfluous words." 

"In February, 1870, the Supreme Court of the U. S. decided that 
Congress had no power to make United States notes a legal tender for pre- 
existing debts, and the reasoning of that opinion was to the effect that the 
legal tender acts were unconstitutional. 

After changes in the membership of the court, it decided, that Congress 
had power to make United States notes a legal tender for debts contracted 
both before and after the passage of the acts. These conflicting opinions 
diminish confidence in the court; any party in control of Congress and the 
Executive can procure any decision by increasing the number of the 
Judges, and 'packing the court.'" [Would not a court, composed of 
plain, honest men, be better than professional, technical gentry, so "learn- 
ed in the law " that they cannot agi-ee as to what it means, and make of 
the courts a secret jugglery to gamble with, so that we have no security in 
jjerson or property.] 

What the Courts Chakge to SETTiiE a Matter of $50. 

"The case has been tried five times, and each time, excejjt one, he 
has received a verdict for from $3,000 to $7,500, which was always set aside. 
He appealed to the Supreme Court, and the verdict has been reversed, 
giving him no damages. The court costs are now $3,300, while the other 
exi^enses on both sides amount to at least $20,000 [a tribute to the court 
gang,] and several parties have been ruined by the expenses of the case. 
The value of the calves Avas $50." 

[And blacklegs say, we have a "Good Judiciary."] 

"Kumors that the Jury had been 'fixed' in the interest of the 



Courts in California and the States. 471 

[Masonic] defendants brought tlie case to a standstill. Four men had 
been slii^i^ed into the bos [by the Masonic Sheiiflf], who should never 
have been admitted. They belonged to the same Masonic lodge as de- 
fendants." [With Masonic ofiicials, what ghost of a show has a Christian 
for equal justice?] 

' ' A Judge has been found in Iowa to di-ive the traditional coach and 
six through the new law on purely technical grounds, and when it had been 
so thoroughly discussed and adopted by so large a majority of the peojile. " 

[If the courts were honest, they would pass on bills before the Legis- 
latui-e adjoiu-ned, if at all. Biit why shoidd two or three Masons override 
the AviU and mature judgment of a large majority of the peojjle, whose 
servants officials are supposed to be ?] 

' ' The first star route trial lasted three months, the second six and a 
half. The cost of both trials has been about half a million to the Govern- 
ment. One lawyer got §60,000, another 840,000, and another $34,000. 
Next to the original steal and the [Masonic] verdict of acquittal, these fees 
are the biggest scandal of the whole disgi-aceful business. " 

[One of the gang pUad guilty, and yet all were acquitted. 
Of course, the " trial " was a farce, done by IVIasons for a blind 
(as though they would punish and send to prison their breth- 
ren for robbing other people), and to steal a half million more 
in court expenses.] 

What Anti-Mason Judges can do. 

" To three lawyers who put in bUls amounting to $25,000 for services 
in settling an estate worth $32,000, Judge Thomas Di-ummond said: ' You 
have charged $25,000 for sixty days' ser-s-ices. These charges are infamous. 
They are such as men who are scoimdrels and thieves at heart would 
make. This charge of $15,000 is cut down to $1500. Those of $5000 
each to $500. Eepeat such a piece of rapine in this coui-t and I will dis- 
bar every one of you.' We trust that other Judges wiU imitate the 
example of Judge Drummond, and reinilse those legal iiii-ates who plun- 
der estates and often reduce their clients to penury." [But when Jiidges 
are brother Masons to these " scoundrels, thieves and ^nrates,'' they stand in 
together to prostitute the courts against the people. And when Judges are ap- 
pointed by ring dignitaries, these blacklegs are the gentry they choose 
from.] 

' ' While evidence against the star route contractors and public officials 
was strong and conclusive as to guilt, and the Government was defrauded 
of large sums, and large sums of money were expended to secure indict- 
ments, yet no person was convicted or jninished, and no ci-\il suits have 
been instituted to recover the vast sums illegally and fraudulently obtained 
from the pubHc treasury. " 

"A young law;)'er went through town driving a portion of his first 



472 Courts in California and the States. 

law fee — a yearling steer. Tlie fee consisted of 68.00 in monev, a stack of 
fodder, a silver Avatch, an old sow and the yearling. " 

[Perhaps, all the poor devil had. If the courts were not 
the swindling shops that they are, they would not require the 
employment of these pirates at all. The court clerh would do 
what formal luriting ivas necessary, and the parties could make known 
their own cases. For example, who knew her case or could make it 
known to others better than Mrs. Gaines, after forty jears ex- 
perience with it ? And she was willing and sometimes did 'plead 
her own cause. Yet, to have any influence with Masonic ridden 
courts, she was compelled to employ a whole gang of Masonic 
pirates, with whom the brethren could secretly and safely trade.'] 

" The time has come for a general leveling up with respect to the 
jury ser\dce, and a thorough revision of the laws relating thereto seems 
imperatively demanded. The people will not tolerate much longer such 
miscarriages of justice as have recently been witnessed in various parts of 
the country." \_Let it he made illegal for any official to belong to any secret 
swo7'n brotlierliood.] 

' ' Hardly a day passes without a legal decision which is contrary to 
reason and common sense. The Scottish American Comj^any has loaned 
some millions of dollars in Chicago and vicinity. On attempting to fore- 
close upon a piece of jjroperty, the defendant set up the plea that ^there 
was no such company in existence.^ After weeks delay, a certified copy of 
the Edinburg certificate of incorporation was offered in evidence of the 
bona fide existence of the company. A day or two ago the court decided 
that this was insufficient, and when asked what would be sufficient, replied 
that ' he did not know. ' To an outsider it would appear that a company 
which had ' existence ' enough to lend some millions of dollars, had 
existence enough to foreclose upon its seciu'ities in case of default. But 
it seems not." [Is such jugglery honest ?] 

"Less than half the number of Judges necessary to the 5,000,000 of 
people of the State of New York is sufficient for nearly five times the 
number of people in England." 

"The case of B. . (colored) on trial for marrying a white gii-1. — B. . 
was found guilty, and given the full penally of the law. The only other 
case under this law was dismissed, the Judge holding the law unconstitu- 
tional. " [Is that equal justice ?] 

"The man arrested for stealing a horse was discharged because he 
proved that he was druuk when he took the animal." [Biit that does not 
acquit an outsider. ] 

' ' When N . . was acquitted of murder, it was on the ground of insan- 
ity. He was then brought up for examination as to his mental condition 
and iDronounced sane, after which formular he was released. All of which 



Courts in California and the States. 473 

is au exhibition of legal jugglery aud liumbtiggery. " [At tlie expense of 
the jieople.] 

"The riot is but the shadow of the events that mnst follow snch 
farcial administration of our laws as occasioned the riot. It was plain 
that the expenditiu-e of a few thousand dollars [and masoniyj had pur- 
chased justice and robbed the gallows of its just dues. It demonstrates 
that the traffic in juries, which has been so extensively earned on, will 
eventually rob the people of their rights and protection, and in the end 
their liberties. " 

"Blank, one of the 'good fellows ' referred to in the Huntington con-e- 
spondence, is now the Chief Justice of . He was called a 'good fel- 
low ' because he could get a railroad bill passed when Governor of that 

TeiTitory -ndth very little money. He was once Governor of also, 

having received the appointment through the [masonic] influence of the 
Central Pacific Comj^any. He there betrayed the Gentiles and defeated 
the laws which he was sworn to ujihold and vindicate. After he was driven 
away from that Terxitory, the same [masonic] influence secured for him 

the governorship of He was removed from that office on proof 

that he had been accessoiy, both before and after the fact, to the worst 
robberies and murders ever committed in that Territory. The Tribune 
says : ' The chain of evidence is almost complete, that he has been but the 
abject, characterless and conscienceless tool of the [masonic] railroad 
owners for something like a dozen years, and that aside from his allegiance 
to [masonry] he is in every bone, muscle, nerve and heart-beat thorough- 
ly coiTupt." \^Such is the material that Governors and the '^ good judiciary^' 
are made of by the masons.] 

"It is imjwssible to comj^rehend how such a verdict could be foiind 
unless, indeed, money [and masonry] vas plentifully used among the 
jurymen. The case was plain enough. His crime was deliberate and 
premeditated. Each member of the jury which brings in such a verdict 
commits an offense against society and against the public peace. It is no 
wonder that the natural criminal classes respond to the impulse given 
from the jury room, and that murders are all too frequent throughout the 
countiy." 

' ' Ours is a Government of lawyers. In the senate there are fifty- 
seven lawyers, five bankers, three each of merchantmen, railroad officials, 
professional poUticians, and manufacturers, two miners, two general busi- 
ness, one editor and eight farmers. 

In the house there are 195 lawyers, nineteen professional politicians, 
seventeen merchants, twelve editors, eleven farmers, ten manufacturers, 
five i^hysicians, three railroad officials, two each of civil engineers, miners 
and mechanics, one clergyman, one capitalist, and one metallurgist. 
La'wyers get office because they are brought up to sjieak in jiublic. " 

" One need not look further for the causes which started the bloody 
riot than the statement of the noted lawyer, who defended the assassin, in 



474 CouKTS IN California and the States. 

■vv'liich he flauutiugly announced, that ' he not only could have acquitted 
the murderer if he had been so disposed, but that it was the first case in 
which he had ever allowed a jury to convict a criminal cHent of his.' There 
is more underneath this than he is willing to openly aver — a good deal more 
than he will be likely to aver in the present mood of the people. It is 
freely alleged that the jury was packed to bring in a mild verdict — half a 
dozen wretches were slipped on the jury for that purjiose — and, as he says, 
if he had been so disposed they would have brought in a verdict of acquittal, 
though the wretch had confessed his guilt and the proof was jjositive 
against him. It was the knowledge that there was no security for life 
under the law, that it was within the abiUty of [masonic] lawyers aided by 
the defects of the law [themselves had fixed] and laxity of the courts to de- 
feat justice, that aroused the j)eople to such a pitch of indignation. They 
felt that there was no other way to punish criminals [with secret influ- 
ence] except by lynch law. The people had appealed and clamored for 
justice over and over again. The press had exposed the iniquities prac- 
ticed in the courts and jury rooms, and urged a reform, but no attention 
was i^aid to it. The travesty of justice went on until it became intolerable. 
It is the general failure of the dispensation of justice that at last aroused 
the citizens to violent retaliation. It is the feeling that a [masonic] mur- 
derer cannot be punished by law for his crime. It is the knowledge that 
he wiU escape either by the corruptions of the lower courts, or the 
supreme coui-t -will reverse the finding on some toretched quibble, and that 
he will be remanded for a new trial and let out on straw [masonic] bail 
until he escapes altogether. The sujireme courts have acted as if they 
were leagued with the criminal classes [they are chiefs of the gang] against 
the i3eace and protection of society, and as if the objects of courts were to 
2n'0tect instead of punish crime, [that is my experience with the courts]. 
They enlist upon the side of the [masonic] lawyer, and aid him with 
quii-ks and technicalities to secure the release of his [masonic] chent, or 
to effect wearisome delays and continuances, which are tantamount to the 
same result. " 

"The reign of law and order is restored ; that law and order which 
makes murder [and robbery] the safest trade, and which has made impo- 
tent the administration of law against [masonic] crimes of society. We 
have vindicated all practical forms, and rules, and traps, and tricks, which 
make the trial of a [ring man] a farce, and degrade the judiciary to the 
sole end of having known and proved murderers [and robbers] saved from 
conviction, and promoting the trade of [masonic] lawyers. Unthinking 
persons [and the gang] speak of such popular impulse as a crime, forget- 
ting that the right to protect itself against crime is a right of society, and 
is conferred by it on its agents, and that societj/ does not lose its right be- 
cause its agents have become impotent,'' [or because they are blacklegs, 
traitors, thieves, and home-ravaging brothers in the gang]. 'Ill-judged 
as it was in acting Avithout organization, the feeling Avhich moved it was 



Courts in California and the States. 475 

a true representative of healthy public sentiment. Neither experience, 
observation, nor public discussion has taught the people that the adminis- 
tration of law is on the side of justice, law and order. They have seen 
that its chief end is to give immunity to [hnked criminals. ] 

' ' Here is what Horace Greely thought of the average lawyer : 

* For lawyers to league themselves for money with the most consummate 
of scoundrels, to become, as it were, accessories after the fact to the greatest 
of crimes and \411ainies by their paid labors in shielding the perj^etrators from 
detection and punishment, or from being obliged to disgorge their dishonest 
gains — all this has become a regular business transaction, and the 
laT\-yer shares the sjjoils of the murderer and the robber, and 
l>ockets the fee stained wdth the blood, or wet mth the tears of some 
wretched -sictim of fraud or force, from whom his cUent had just before 
extorted it, with no less satisfaction than he puts into his pocket the last 
dollar of the poor, deluded victim, who, having been plundered or cheated 
of the greater part of his i)roj)erty by some other [Masonic] rogue, spends 
the miserable remnant of it in the vain and deceptive pursuit of legal redress. 
[And blacklegs say, ' we have a good judiciary.'] " 

"Some time ago Blank instructed his lawyers to offer Cox $75,000 in 
fidl settlement, which his attorneys refused, stating that it was not enough 
to go around among them for fees, let alone what Cox was entitled to. 
Blank's funeral takes place to-morrow. " 

[The courts are a secret robber-clan,] 

•' The shooting was done by Cox, and arose out of a difficulty about a 
law suit. Cox went to Blank's office and demanded $40,000 in settlement 
of claims standing between them. On Blank's refusing he drew a revolver 
and shot three times. He says, he asked [Links] for $40,000, that he was 
in absolute want, beggared, ruined [by the courts]. Links refused. 
'Then,' said Cox, 'I will attach your proj^erty.' 'I have prepared against 
that,' repUed Links, 'you can't get a cent.' Under the beHef, that he 
would not get justice in any way, Cox drew a revolver and fired. 

It is the du-ect outcome of a slavish adherence to technicalities by the 
Supreme Coitrt, which so often ignores equity and outrages justice." 

"The acquittal of Cox by the coroner's juiy adds interest to the case. 
In 1867, Cox commenced a suit against Links & Co. for $173,395, the 
amount due him on a contract to grade a portion of railroad. Judgment 
was rendered in his favor for the amount claimed with interest, $193,173. 
The case was appealed and the judgment reversed. A second trial was 
had, and judgment again rendered in favor of Cox for $268,655. There 
was another ajipeal -with similar results, and then a third trial with judg- 
ment again in favor of the iilamtiff, amounting this time to $378,477. 
Links <fe Co. again api^ealed and the jiidgment was again reversed, and 
judgment ordered in favor of the defendant. Under the exasi")eration of 
this climax of decisions, last spring Cox made an assault ujion Judge 
Links, who had several times reversed the judgment in his favor. He had 



476 Courts in California and the States. 

been goaded to desiJeration by gross injustice. He had put liia all into 
the work for which he was seeking compensation," [and the masonic 
courts made him blow in ^75,000 more, and they deserved killing.] 

He had been made to dance attendance by the rulings of the [ma- 
sonic] supreme bench upon the courts for nearly sixteen years, and had 
for several years been borrowing money for his family to live uix)n, while 
he was still being bandied back and forth, like a shuttle cock, between 
the coui'ts. After this assault ui^on the Judge a new trial of the case was 
secured by another j)arty coming into it, and it was sent back to the lower 
court for the fourth time, where every judgment had been for the plain- 
tiff except one on demun-er, and every judgment in his favor had been 
reversed on a technicality by the supreme court. As an outcome, Cox has 
killed Links. The circumstances were such, that the jury decided that it 
was done in self-defense." [Why would not the kilhng of such courts be 
also in self-defense ?] 

"This tragedy can be regarded in no other light than a logical conse- 
quence of a pernicious [masonic] legal system which in ninety-nine cases 
oiit of a hundred has more of [flawed] law than equity in it. The slayer 
of Links is a victim of [masonic] technicaUty. Had there been more of 
justice and less strained law in our courts, Links would be alive to-day." 

"It is an outrage on the name of law for the courts to keep a case on 
trial seventeen years, and during that time to rej)eatedly bandy it back 
and forth between the courts" [and charge $75,000 for doing so.\ 

" No one can deny the magnitude of the injury done Cox, and such 
delay would have been an injury even if there had . been no merit in his 
case. It is one of the \inaay thousand^ cases which increase the pojjular 
distrust of [masonic] courts. When a man has a just claim against an- 
other, the courts ought to help him collect it inside of seventeen years. 
Stich delays of justice is a denial of justice, for justice is nothing if not 
executed. Such a course as that pursued in this [and so many thousand 
of other] cases by the courts is not a private, but a pubhc outrage, and 
these cases must not be permitted by the courts to occur too often, for if 
they do, it -will be as Artemus "Ward said : ' Ten dollars in the Judges' 
pockets if they had never been born,' " 

"Every large city in the United States is, to-day, a smouldering vol- 
cano, and the material that feeds the growing flames is the maladministra- 
tion of justice, not only as regards murderers [and robbers] , biat as regards 
everybody and everything that has money [and masonry] to back him or it. 
The peojale are growing restive iinder the rule of riches [and masonry], 
the power that controls our courts and makes the administration of justice 
a hideous farce. The Cox-Links case was one in point. See how Cox 
was robbed in due form of law for sixteen years ; see what a desiderate 
attempt was made to punish Cox for defending his life against the tyrant. 
Did not the people have to interfere and say in decided tones : * Stop that. 



Courts in California and the States. 477 

Let Cox alone. ' [And 7ie teas let alone] or the people would have Lad to 
take the Cox-Links business jjretty resolutely in hand." 

"All over the United States, in ten thousand different ways, this arro- 
gance of the [masonic] money-power and its interference with the rights 
of the people is being seen and felt, and the sentiment that is now 
' smouldering ' over it, may burst into volcanic flame and force at any 
time. As time goes on, the outbreaks are certain to be fiercer and more 
frequent unless the court [masonry] is removed." 

"After a [Masonic] assassin's crime has been triumphantly committed, 
a hunt is commenced for legal technicaUties. It can scarcely be termed a 
' hunt, ' for any village attorney can jsass a few hours in his library and 
find or invent a cart-load of them. Dear to the [masonic cursed] court is 
the dry, threadbare, venerable, time-worn technicaUty. Equally dear is 
the new technicality. It is turned over and over, and ins^jected from vari- 
ous stand-points with professional enthusiasm. No botanist surveys a 
newly discovered plant or flower vdth. such profound gratification as the 
[masonic] court takes ofiicial cognizance of a new technicality. The at- 
torney who cannot devise a technicahty suitable for any i^hase of a 
criminal proceeding, should bury his empty head in a sand-hill, and 
grow up to be his oxsTi monument. The old moss-covered technicalities are 
as dear to the [masonic cursed] judicial heart, as the dry bones of a fossil 
mammoth are to the infatuated natural philosopher. The asjiiring legal 
jDractitioner surveys the judicial horizon with the same watchful care that 
the astronomer siuweys the Heavens, and the appearance of an hnportant 
new technicality awakens in his bosom emotions similar to those that 
agitate the star-gazer on haihng the advent of a new planet. To keep 
pace with the increase of technicalities requii-es incessant vigilance and 
large hbraries. Moses could present laws for the whole world, and for all 
terrestrial time, condensed into so small a space that, j^iinted on a shp of 
25aper, they might be j^asted in the bottom of a hat. The San Fi'ancisco 
Law Library contains twenty or thirty thousand volumes, and yet our 
legal practitioners often turn away from it in desjiair, not being able to 
find in its whole vast collection the i^recise law book they want. Many 
lawyers keep themselves poor by the absolutely unavoidable purchase of 
law books, which might be more api^ropriately termed 'iechnicalities hound 
in calf. ' To be able to higgle over a technicahty in learned style, to ex- 
piate with due solemnity on aU its Bunyan-like ramnifications relative to 
some similar technicahty, is really the path to legal success [in a prosti- 
tuted court] , and every lawyer knows it, and the bold [brother in the 
gang] attorney frequently has occasion to wonder at the ease with which 
the brain of a ' learned Judge ' has been muddled [by coin or secret obli- 
gation.]" 

Every State legislature is a mill for incessantly grinding out new 
[flawed] laws, which must all be construed and expounded in turn [for a 
l>rice], and each of which brings forth its crop of decisions and technical- 



■ITS Courts in California and the States. 

ities -with the miUtiplying powers of a grain of mustard seed. The bear- 
ing of the laws of one State on the laws of another State mnst be exjjoiiud- 
ed, and the bearing of national laws on State laws mnst be expoimdod 
also. In almost every State ajipropriatious are regularly made for the 
publication of what are termed reports. There are New York reports, 
Massachusetts reports, Ohio reports, Michigan reports, Wisconsin rejjorts, 
and so on ad infinitum. These reports are grand depositones of technical- 
ities. They contain the guesswork and opinions of a mnltitude of [conjfid- 
ii);/] Judges on all kinds of ingenioiis and infinitesimal points, and every 
year they grow larger in size and more boiindless in number. A pUe of 
them form a perfect arsenal of tei'hnicalities. When a shrewd lawyer 
spiings a new techuicahty on his oj^pouent, prociired from one of these 
five dollai" volumes, his opponent's case is temi^oranly hopeless. The 
usual recourse is to secure a delay on some transpai-ent pretext, and hunt 
up enough ''authorities" and "precedents " to upset that technicaUty and 
over-shadow it ^-ith another one. 

If the Emperor of Japan should seud a three-masted ship to San 
Francisco, and request that it be loaded with a single copy of opinions, 
dissenting oi^inions, digests, commentaries, recorded quibbles, and tech- 
nicalities bearing thereon, that ship Avould sink so deep in San Francisco 
Bay that the ablest shark in the Pacific Ocean would never be able to find 
it. If a t<?nth part of our legiil lore ever got to Japan it would tangle the 
Oriental mind in a hopeless maze. 

In addition to the various State governments engaged in the i:)ropaga- 
tion of legal technicalities by annual pubhcations, there are countless 
private publisher engaged in the same business. They are all toiling in 
the same field, and helj^ing to roll up the great mountain of technicalities 
that is gradually breaking the back of the goddess of justice. 

Even when the vast conglomeration of disjointed law fails to meet a 
particular case, the sagacious attorney may turn to the legiil lore of England, 
and gTope through the legixl fictions of a thousand yoai-s. Somewhere 
among the mouldering nabbish he will find a valuable hint, or a techui- 
cahty centuries old that can be galvanized into hfe, and he ■wQl be able 
to return to the chai-ge "vnth A-ictorious vigor. 

'^Tien a civil case has been decided perhaps for the twentieth time in 
various couris and mannei-s, and is no longer to be luggled over, it should 
not be stated that the ■sictor has proved the justice of his case. It would 
often be more correct to say that his lawyei-s have literally worn out the 
physical energies of their opponents, or have finally brougld about a total 
exhaustion o//unds on the other side. Gold is a leading factor in the search 
for justice, as well as a sinew of war. To the ambitious students of law 
the candid professor should simply hold up a technicality and exclaim : 
"By this shall ye conquer." 

This practical part of the legal science is, to see that no rogue who can 
raise money [or ring influence] shaU ever be adequately punished. " Bet- 



Courts in California and the States. 479 

ter that nine guilty persons shall escape than that one innocent person 
shall suffer," was once the nohle adage of Anglo-Saxon law. It has been 
changed. It should now read : " Better that a thousand [ring] cutthroats 
should go uniiunished than that a single, worthless technicality should go 
unol).sei*\ed. " Justice has long been bUnd. If she could get one eye open 
and grow deaf, it would be a blessed thing for the American people. 

Suppose our judicial system continues as it is for five hundred years. 
How unhappy will be the fate of tlie people who live then ! Imagine the 
fifteen story buildings that will have to be constructed all over the land to 
contain even a fractional part of the many technicalities that will then be 
in daily demand. When no place can possibly be provided, in spite of 
merciless taxation, for the storage of accumulated law books, the impover- 
ished citizen will be turned out of doors to make room for them. "My 
children are homeless," he Avill exclaim, "but, thank God, they have 
plenty of law." 

Yes, America will then be truly a land of law, hu( the abode of justice 
will he many thousands of miles away. Immense jiiles of law books [and 
practical masonry] will crowd her out of the country. 

So gloomy a view may not be necessary. Some day, in sheer des- 
peration, our law-worn successors may fall back on the ten commandments 
and make a grand l)onfire of their legal lore and desiccated technicaUties, 
that will illuminate the continent from one end to the other. After the 
fashion of the Moslem caliph at Alexandria they may declare : "If these 
immense piles of law books, which it would require a hundred thousand 
years to read, agree with Moses, we do not need them. If they disagree 
with him they should certainly be burned. " After that [Masonic] mur- 
derers and robbers will be very likely to get their necks stretched. Courts 
will no longer ^irtually declare: "We know that the [ling] wretch before 
us is guilty, but how can we punish him, when there is a technicality in 
the way ? " 

For the last time the world will hear of demurrers, exceptions, object- 
ions, continuances, motions for three or four new trials, re-hearings, ap- 
peals, re-appeals, writs of error, waits of supersedeas and all the other 
flummeiy and drj'-bones of & perfectly v'orthless judicial system." 

**Dame Justice appears to be not only blind, but deaf and dumb also. 
And that is not a good thing. 

WTien [the four Masonic criminals] were at last, after overlong delay, 
brought into court yesterday for trial, their [Masonic] lawyers had the 
coolness to ask for & further delay — and they actually got it. 

"To make a motion," they told the coui-t. The proposed motion be- 
ing a mere quiljble and evasion. They propose to go back of the indict- 
ment and attack the legality of the Grand Jury, it seems. What they 
really want is to put off the trial as long as possible, and to use for that 
purpose every possible cunning and unscrupulous device." 



480 Courts in California and the States. 

""WTien tlie 'four distinguislied defendants,' indicted for consi^iracy 
to defraud the city, wliicli means tlie jjeoijle of tlie city, and their six or 
eight equally distinguished lawyers had got their delay from the judge, 
an officer of the court said, 'now we will get down to the common 
herd of scamjDS.' " [Outsiders.] 

"The common herd of scamps," forsooth. One, aged 17, sentenced 
to two years imprisonment for burglary. Another, for grand larceny, 
two years. Another, larceny, three years and a quarter in the peniten- 
tiary. 

It does not take long to turn off the "common herd of scamps." But 
pray, why should justice make this distinction ? Is it right that rich 
[Masonic] scamps, because they are able to hire " distinguished lawyers" 
shall evade trial, while poor scamps, friendless, unable to give large fees 
to "distinguished" counsel, are humed to jail ? 

Nearly 69,000 voters of New York expressed their discontent with the 
existing management of affairs by voting for Mr. George. They were not 
anarchists, as some silly people pretended, they were law-abicling but 
seriously discontented citizens, and one of their comj^laints was against 
the way in which justice is administered in New York. The election at 
which they expressed their discontent was one of the quietest and most 
orderly this city has ever seen. They did not elect Mr. George, but if 
justice continues to make so large a difference between "distinguished de- 
fendants" [Masons] and " common scamjDs " [outsiders], as she has done 
on so many occasions and years, the election of Mr. George, or i^ossibly a 
worse man, and not only that, but of Judges, prosecuting officers and legis- 
lators as well, is a very certain event. 

The American people are jaatient and long-suflfering, but they are not 
fools; and they all have votes." 

"What it Costs to be a Judge. 

Some curious statements made before a meeting of the Bar Association. 

At the meeting of the Bar Association of the city of New York some 
time ago, Wheeler H. Peckham called attention to the fact that candidates 

for judicial offices are subjected to assessment by political parties 

Originally a small assessment was paid, such as would be proper to cover 
the necessary expenses of jirinting, etc., but of late the assessments are so 
large that it is impossible for any man to pay them without a consciousness 
that he be buying a nomination. He j^rophesied that unless the evil was 
checked the judiciary of this country would merge into as absolute a con- 
dition of comiption as ever existed in any country. He said, that so seri- 
ous an evil needed the most radical efforts to coiTCct it. Ex-Judge Emott 
said he had been informed that the assessments now are sometimes as high 
as S25,000. A man who is able to i)ay such an assessment forfeits nothing 
but his self-resj)eet, which of itself is enough to disqualify him. But a 
man not able to pay so large an assessment must mortgage himself to get 



Courts in California and the States. 481 

the nomination. If lie is elected, he belongs to the three or f oui* men who 
have advanced the money, and is bound to repay them through the patron- 
age of his office. This, he thought, was the most cornii^t asjject of the 
case. He had been informed that candidates for the highest judicial 
offices had been notified to attend the committee meetings of pohtical par- 
ties, and kept dancing attendance in ante-rooms until the politicians saw 
fit to see them. Then they would be told that the assessment was so much 
money. If the candidate said it was large, or larger than usual, he would 
be told that the only question was whether he Avould pay the money. 

Mr. Dorman B. Eaton said that the present system of nominations led 
to the selection of men who could pay the assessments, sometimes regard- 
less of the fact that the candidate was unfit. He thought that the old 
EugKsh system of buying a place was more honest, because it was at least 
open. 

"For Fr^-E Calves. 
A cause celebre which has occupied the courts for fourteen years and still drags 

along. 
This litigation has been under the consideration of thirty grand jurors 
and eighty-four petit jurors; it has been presented to nine different trial 
judges, and has twice been before the Supreme Court, five judges sitting 
ui^on the bench at each time. The coiu*t costs alone amount to more 
than $5000, and the attorneys' fees are much more than that amount. All 
of the eighty-four jui'ors have decided in favor of Johnson, but the courts 
have uniformly set the verdicts aside on legal grounds because of the close 
question as to whether there was probable cause on the jjart of the mem- 
bers of the society for starting prosecution. 

The larger part of a lifetime has been spent in useless Htigation over a 
few animals, the entire value of which was about $45. A number of the 
farmers engaged in the suits have become hoi^elessly ruined, but stillJohn- 
son comes smilingly before the court, begins his suits, and readily pays 
for them, though he is fast sinking into insolvency, and is already an 
elderly man. Children of various ages, who testified when the Htigation 
first began, now lead into court then* ot\ti children, Avho are nearly as old 
as were then- parents at the time they made their fii'st bows to the courts. 
The farmers are growing old, their money has leaked away through the 
various legal crcA-ices and found its way into other hands; homes have 
been made jioorer in every way, and still the case is dragged through the 
tedious channels of the law, with but httle more chance of a settlement 
than there was fourteen years ago. " 

"After Seven Years in Jail. 
Mr. Henry A. Frost, who was discharged from Ludlow street jail by 
Judge Arnoux on December 28, after seven yeai's' imprisonment, ob- 
tained yesterday from the supreme court of Kings county an order de- 
claiiug all the proceedings against the petitioner and his clients, tlirough 
31 



482 Courts in California and the States. 

which he was incarcerated, to be Jixill and void. ' ' It has taken me seven 
years to find out whether I could be imprisoned legally for protecting 
a chent," said Mr. Frost to a Herald reporter. "My imprisonment has 
broken u]) my home, alienated my friends, ruined my biisiness, and left 
me practically a beggar, with a broken down constitution." 

"The reason why the Willows (Cal.) Justice of the Peace attempted to 
assassinate one of the constables with a knife, is said to be that the 
constable did not bring his business into that Justice's court. " 

" Shroder has been acquitted for the murder of Le Fevi-e at Oakland. 
The jury were out from Friday night to Monday afternoon. Transitory 
mania and emotional insanity are now in criminal homicides what four aces 
are in draw looker. But only the rich can afford these costly disorders. 
A biased Judge and a jury to siiit are good helps. Killing is no murder 
in such cases. " 

"It is useless to say that justice does its work with anything like 
completeness. There have been 1517 murders committed in this countiy 
this year, as reported by telegrajih, which, of course, does not include the 
whole number, whereas during the whole of last year there were but 1266. 
As against this awful list there have been but 93 persons hanged, the ma- 
jority of whom were negroes in the south, who may or may not have been 
guilty, and 118 persons lynched, of whom the majority were also southern 
negroes, whose guilt was many times in doubt. Assuming that aU were 
guilty, the jjunishment of 211 jjersons where over 1500 murders were com- 
mitted is palpably a failure of justice, and shows that the laws or the 
methods of executing the laws are not sufficient to deter the commission 
of crime. Many of these cases of lynching, and perhaps the majority of 
them, were due, as the Tribune says, to the fact that the jaeople were ex- 
asijerated by the failure of justice, and hopeless that any jienalty would be 
administered. They have, therefore, in the veiy rage of despair, taken 
the law into their owti hands, and shut off the customary avenues of escape 
by quibbles, delays and technicalities." 

"The Pistol. 

Dr. I. 8. Kalloch's Lecture on its Use and Abuse, was deliveretl at 

Union Hall last evening to a very large audience A tragedy was 

again enacted in this city. I am going to try the courts and not the 
case. I know little aboiit the case, but I know enough about it to knoAv 
that it belongs to that kind for which there exists great j^rovocation — one 
that will cause such cases to increase rather than diminish, and calls for 
some one to characterize it as it deserves. In short, I arraign our judges, 
courts and lawyers, with their technicalities, delays, and i^rocrastiuations 
as the grand inspiration of the most colossal and calamitous class of crimes 
with Avhich our community is affiicted. I refer to the crimes that rock 
society to its foundation and tlireaton to loosen the very groundwork of 
civil order. How much of this resijonsibility is due to the courts ? Is 



Courts m California and the States. 483 

justice flo administered as to secure respect to its officers ? Are the courbs 
morally responsible for these startHng crimes ? I think they are, and I 
arraign them for this fearful misdemeanor. The whole jury system, 
grand and petit, has outlived its usefulness. Our jury methods are 
defective and need reforming. That their defects are dangerous to the 
pubHc peace is well known to everybody except antediluvian judges, 
conservative lawyers and post-pliocene philosophers. Property, life and 
liberty are at the mercy of corrupt jurors when deputy officials have 
the opportunity to carry on a little business of their own. The peojile 
need not dread the soldier, the priest, the editor, the miUionaire or the 
devil, if there is only an open field and a fair fight. The man to be 
dreaded is the shyster lawyer, and the power to be feared, a corrupted 
court. The courts are the sheet anchor of the Eefjublic, and Avhen they 
are gone everything is gone. To be respected, the courts must be re- 
spectable. There must be no more such decisions as the 8-to-7 decision, 
whereby a man who was elected President was defrauded of his office. 
The courts should get out of the bogs of technicality and be what they 
are intended to be, courts of justice. The merits of a case are lost sight 
of in the legal quibbles Hstened to by the courts. A case in point is 
that of the man who had a raili-oad contract and spent his fortune in 
the work. For sixteen years he tned to have his claim adjusted by the 
courts. He recovered judgment four times, but each time it Avas set 
aside on a technicaUty. Despondent, poor, exasperated, he sent a human 
being to his grave and himself to a felon's cell. If the coui'ts had not 
been derehct in their duty, could not justice have been administered to this 
man in sixteen years and the crime averted ? " The lectru-er next re- 
ferred to the insolence of lawyers toward Avitnesses, which seems to be 
not only allowed, but encouraged by the judges. He had seen attorneys 
badger and abuse simjjle-hearted men and honest women who fell into 
their clutches on the witness stand, and if they attempted to resent the 
impudence of the lawyers, the court immediately admonished them to 
go slow or they would be punished for contempt. He knew of one 
attorney in this city who was frequently engaged simply because his 
eyes Avere monstrosities, and he could disconcert Avitnesses when he turned 
his gaze full upon them. He considered that the glaring wrongs of the 
courts were a prolific cause of a'ime. It is a common thing to hear men 
say on the streets that the courts ought to be abohshed and the i^eople 
form Vigilance Committees and take the laAv into their oavu hand.s. Many 
l)ractical merchants prefer to compromise unjust claims rather than go to 
laAV, simply becaix.se they fear the uncertainty of the administration of 
justice. Mr. Kalloch attributed the alarming decay of self-respect to 
the crushing out of the sense of honor by law. Genteel bummers, 
blackmailers and vagrants have their carcasses jjrotected by the courts, and 
are saved from incarceration and lal)or by the judges, while the big-hearted 
man Avhose .self-respect and honor Avere being toyed Avith by the judiciary 



484 Courts in Co^ifornia and the States. 

was driven to seek redress in crime Instead of equity it is technicality, 

and it is no wonder that men are driven to suicide and murder." 

"Lawyers have been as powerful in the courts, in many instances, as 
in the legislatures. They have sometimes owned judges and thus got such 
rulings from the bench as they desired. At other times, by their superior 
intellectual force, or force of -will, they have tyrannized over judges, and 
thus carried on their unequal warfare against the public. " 
From a Governor's Message. 

"The laws, owing to careless [?] legislation and decisions of the 
courts, are in such a state of confusion that it is very difficult even for ex- 
jjerienced members of the bar to arrive at any definite conclusion in regard 
to them, much less can a citizen exactly determine the rules that govern 
his conduct, or the laws that guarantee his rights and pri\ileges." 

[^Suppose there are 100,000 lawyers in the United States, and that each on 
an average, directh/ and indirectly, damages the peo2)le $10,000 ; see how much 
that is: ^100,000 x iglO, 000— 81,000,000,000 every year! and say, whether 
or not, the whole horde should be abolished? The clebks of the courts 

COULD BE REQUIRED TO DO, AT SLIGHT EXPENSE, THE NECESSARY CLERICAL 
AVORK, ETC. , BELONGING TO A SUIT. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Big lautl steals in "Washington.— "Eighty per cent, of the entries in one 
district fraudulent."' — How this is accomijlished, and who can do it 
■with impunity. — Also showing what should be "between the lines" 
in the newspaper press. 

W HILE it was a difficult matter for a liomebuilder to acquire 
and hold even a quarter section of land, masonic individuals 
and gangs by their prostitution of the Government and secret 
influence at court were given, or allowed to steal, millions of 
acres of the people's rightful heritage. This is so notorious 
that I only need to quote from the press to make it plain and 
evident to all. 

"There is no doubt, and there can be none, that the public lands have 
been plundered in the most bold and imbhishing manner. The testimony 
of every man who has investigated the subject is to this effect, and there 
is no citizen of Washington who is not con%-inced of it. The e^ddence given 
on tliis point by this special agent may be quoted as indicative of that 
which has been given by ihousamh of otliers [without effect because the big 
thieves are linked masons]. In an official report he said : 'It is my 
opinion that fuUi/ fifty per cent, of the entries in this (the Olympia) district 
are collusive, and therefore fraudulent.' Was it not necessary to set a 
closer watch on the thieves ? Every journal in the United States which 
has been outspoken in behalf of popular rights sustains the action of Com- 
missioner Sparks. Every one which owes its allegiance to corriapt [ma- 
sonic] power, joins in the chorus against him, [and he was kicked out of 
office for exposing the rank perjury and stealing of the linked masons, and 
the masonic-ridden courts shielded the criminals.] 

* 

[House of Representatives, Washington.] — "Cobb moved to pass the 

bill repealing the pre-emption, timber-cultixre, and desert land acts 

Payson declared that during the past four years ninety j^er cent, of the 

entries of land under these acts had been fraudulent." 

* 
* * 

"Some of the down Sound papers are expressing a gi-eat deal of vir- 
tuous indignation over the probable escape of J. . and other [masons] from 
conviction upon charges of frauds in connection with limber laud entries. 
These same papers, in common -with other [masonic] papers in this land 
district, have wilhngly accepted and published the notices necessary to 
appear sixty days before timber laud entries cau be perfected, for which 
they asked and received very liberal pay, and in doing this had abundant 



486 Big Land Steals in Washington. 

opportunities of satisfying themselves that most of such entries -were made 
in the interests of [masons] and that only in excejitional cases was it ex- 
pected that the individuals taking the claims would hold them. [The 
land office officials also being masons would and do shut their eyes to 
frauds of their brethren, but outsiders are snatched up quick enough. ] 
Nearly every mill company and large buyer of timber lands was as much 
guilty of fraud as J . . or any other land agent who acted for his principals 
in securing large and valuable tracts of timber land. It is folly to attempt 
to make one or two men [when they are masons] the scapegoats for all the 
sinners who have been guilty of ' irregularities ' in connection with land 
entries. 

The public land laws are only so many legalized methods of offering 
premiums upon fraud and perjury, and until these laws are differently 
framed, evasions, false swearing and trickery will be jirevalent in the 
taking up of public lands." 

[And they will be just as prevalent no matter how the laws are framed, 
so long as mosotis and odd-felloics are the land and court officials iclio are 
secretly siooni. to keep their ring brothers' secrets. 

Whenever land is secured by fraud it is well known in the neighbor- 
hood of the land thus stolen, and the ciinies can easily be proven ; and 
when outsiders go after such "premiums" (?) this is done with a vengeance 
and for blood, and they are made scapegoats for all the ring tliieves in the 
country ; stripped of all their property, if they have any, by the court 
gang, and then frequently sent to prison to reflect on the unequal justice 
(which is not justice) they are suffering, and to relate the much worse and 
stronger cases against ring men steeped in crime that were "acquitted," 
or laid over to acquit by the same jury or court. And the land of the out- 
sider is restored to the Government even after patents have been issued 
and it has changed hands to different outsiders — "innocent purchasers" 
and in "good faith."] 

* 

"It has been stated over and over again that the [ring] i^eople of 
Olympia were intimately connected with these laud frauds ; that they had 
permeated society, had contaminated ser^'ants of the Government, [Ma- 
sonic] citizens of the toAvn, one and all. So general has become this con- 
nection with the frauds that their investigation has been all but imjaossible. 
Obstacles are put in the way, movements made are squelched, and a sup- 
pression of the facts resorted to in all cases," [where the gang is con- 
cerned. ] 

For example I give this. — "The [farce] trial of J., which commenced 
a week ago [at the expense of the peoj^le Avhich means profit to the gang] 
terminated yesterday in the disagi-eement of the [ring] jmy. J., had 
been indicted for obstructing justice by removing to British Columbia a large 
number of imi)ortant Avituesses iu the cases of consjnracy to defraud the Gov- 
ernment by making fictitioiisland entries, pending against J . . jW . . ,D . . ,E . . 



Big Land Steals in Washington. 487 

and P. . . The trial of W. was commenced Wednesday, bixt for want of suffi- 
cient e^idence the Judge dii-ected the Jury to bring in a verdict of not 
guilty, which was done. An order of nolle pros, was entered in the cases 
of J . . and D . . for the same reason, and they were discharged. The 
Olympia attorneys P. . . and R. . . were allowed a change of venue to 
Olympia. [Where, of course, their coui-t brethren " acquitted " them. 
One of them was prosecuting attorney at the time — that is, he prosecuted 
outsiders, and was a close friend and influential brother of the Governors, 
while they would scoflt' at the will of whole communities of good citizens.] 
''End of the Timber Fraud Suits. — 0"\ving to the fact that nearly all 
the imi)oi-tant witnesses in the cases against J . . and his jjals had been in- 
duced to leave the country, U. S. jirosecuting attorney [Mason] considered 
it exjjedient to dismiss the cases against the parties, as it is almost im- 
possible to get a conviction when the opposite jjarties have money [or be- 
long to the gang] unless the e\-idence is overwhelmingly conclusive of 
giiilt, and even then a prosecution often fails.''' 

[But are such gentry any the less criminals than those without money 
or ring influence at court, who go to prison ? And is this justice ? 

What does a Jury that is selected by Masons to try (?) a Mason or 
Odd Fellow, or an outsider against one of the gang, care for evidence ? 

Except as a too plain exposure to the people, evidence neither convicts nor 

acquits in such cases. A packed Jury is governed by other influences and 

obligations than evidence or their oath to do justice.] 

* * 

* 

"It will be seen that jirosecuting attorney [hnked Mason] and his 
law 2)artner [chief of the ' bar '] were indicted by the Grand Jury on the 
part of the U. S. for obstmcting justice. W. J. . . and several of his con- 
federates were arrested for consjDiracy against the Government in making 
fraudulent entries on large bodies of timber laud. Four of the witnesses 
could not furnish the bonds and were placed in the penitentiary until 
court should convene. It now transpires that two or three days befoi-e 
court met, certain men [Masons] not only furnished $800 cash bail for the 
release of these witnesses, but chartered a steamer to go to the penitentiary, 
take the ^^itnesses and convey them to British Columbia. Messrs. P. R . . 
and J. . are charged Avith having concocted and canied out the scheme." 

[There were 2)lenty of other witnesses to be had, besides those that 
were spirited away, but they were not wanted to testify against the gang. 
And there was also plenty of proof to be had against the guilty parties 
who did the spiriting; but to in-oduce such proof would be in violation of 
theh- secret-ring oaths "to keep their brothers' secrets!" And thus are the 
most vile and dangeroiis criminals kejit out of prison, and even "Aindi- 
cated." (?) 

Listen to this ! from a Masonic paper that would pull on a rope to 
lynch an outsider, less guilty of a like oflence.] 



488 Big Land Ste\ls in Washington. 

' ' Tlie Presa expressed its confidence when [brother] J . . was assailed 
by his enemies, that there vras nothing in the case against him. We had 
ascertained to ou.r [Masonic] satisfaction that he Avas guilty of nothing 
more than technical irregularity or want of sufficient adherence to the/arms 
prescribed for governme)ital business. " [ ?] 

[But when outsiders do the same thing, it is declared and decreed to 
be robbery, perjury and treason ! And they are sent to prison for long 
terms — which is their congratulation. ] 

"Our judgment has been coufirmed by the [packed] Grand Jury 
which has dismissed the charges against [the brother] and foimd ' not a 
true bill. ' There will be entire unanimity here [among the pagan brethren] 
in congratulating Mr. J. . . upon this complete [?] vindication." [?] 

[Are not such criminals who are thus "vindicated" [?] by Masonic 

ridden courts and press, more dangerous to the community and State than 

the plain, common burglar, against whom people lay in wait with shotguns? 

Then, why discriminate between them ? 

* * 

* 

" The land stealings of the [Masonic] Mill companies during the past 
few years have been estimated by a comi^etent and well-informed jjerson 
as high as 300,000 acres, worth on an average 810 an acre, [which should 
have been preserved for actual settlers under the Homestead act, and let 
them make what they could out of the timber growing on the tillable land, 
to help them in building their home, and the rest they could preserve for 
the benefit of then- children.] This $3,000,000 worth of land has been 
stolen [by Masons, &c.] from the peoj^le upon Avhom this Territory de- 
l^ends for its development — the hard working settlers who go into the 
woods and hew out farms and homes. " 

" To accomplish this enormous fraud, the [Masons] have emjiloyed re- 
gular agents, Avho have operdy soUcited individuals to make entnes of 
timber lands and for that service have paid from $50 to 8150 per quarter 
section." [And thus "openly" committed ijerjury and subornation of 
perjury, fraud and conspiracy. But having the Government and courts 
prostituted, they could do this with imi^unity, and get to be blackleg 
Governors with their i^lunder.] 

"All the talk of suing amounted to nothing. I am guarded in 

my language Avhen I say that in more than thirty years of experience in 
lumbering in California, Oregon and Washington, and thus seeing over 
fifty equally and often times greater suits begun, they all fell through. 
TJiey amount to notliing." 

[They should at least ojien the eyes of the iieojile to the prostitution 
of the Government and courts by members of secret brotherhoods who are 
sworn to keep each other^s criminal secrets.] 

"Sometimes they are settled, fully as often they are withdrawn. I 
have known the most stupendous frauds — such, for instance, as the big 



Big Land Steals in Washington. 489 

timber steal at Humboldt Bay. The charges were true, but yet nothing 

was done. I know that not one of these cases was pushed to conviction, 

and I have no fears of this case." [When -wdtnesses are bent on exjjosing 

such ring thieves, jobs are frequently put up against them, and these false 

cases are "i>ushed to con^action." Whereupon the blackleg Governor 

smiles and smiles and declares "we have a good judiciary," and that the 

"l3eoi)le clamor" for the punishment of such -s-ictims, and join the inison 

contractors in sucking their heart's blood and driving iron into their souls 

and a flaming desire of vengeance.] 

* * 

* 

"All good citizens will rejoice that commissioner Sparks has deter- 
mined to check the rascally operations of the [Masonic] mill comi:>anies in 
the future and to hold them to account for their past crimes. It is noto- 
rious here on Puget Sound, so notorious as not to excite remark, that 
hundreds of thousands of acres of the best and most valuable timber land 
in the territory have jjassed and are yet jjassing into the hands of the 
[Masonic] mill companies, by means of fraud and perjury." 

"This accumulation of immense bodies of land in the hands of a few 
wealthy [and clanish] owners, is in itself a fraud ujion the Government 
and the people. It was never the intention of our land laws to create a 
landed aristocracy, and by so doing to withhold from settlement audi m- 
l^rovemeut large areas of country. On the contrary, their object was and 
is to distribute the jjublic land in small quantities among a large number 
of people, to be by them improved and made into homes and farms. [But 
the prostituted court steps in with its fraud, its bar (?) and expensive 
jugglery, and gives license to ring thieves to override the laws and ijeoi^le. ] 

"The [Masonic] companies, by hiring transient emj^loyees and sailors 
to file claims uj)on govei'nment land, to falsely swear that the necessary 
improvements have been made, and upon receiving a certificate from the 
land office, [which would not be given for the benefit of outsiders in the 
face of such bare-faced i)erjiiry and subordination of perjxxiy, but only to 
ring brothers of the land office officials,] to convey the laud to their em- 
jjloyers for a song, are gobbling up government land to hold. This steady 
and rajiid stealing of the most conveniently located timber lands has been 
going on for many years, ixntil now the mill companies have a practical 
monopoly of the timber land near enough to tide water to be at present 
available. This gives them an advantage over the loggers, which they are 
not slow to avail themselves of. This is the way the [Masonic] mill com- 
jianies fleece the loggers: A logger applies for a contract to furnish a 
boom of logs. If he has timber of his own, he is told that the [Masonic] 
mill company has plenty of [stolen] timber. Unless, therefore, he will 
cut logs on the mill company's [.stolen] land, at their o-wti price for 
stumpage, he must put in his own timber at a price to be fixed by the 
[Masonic] company. ' Furnish your own timber at our price, or cut logs 
on our [stolen] land at our price,' says the [Masonic] company to the 



490 Big Land Steals in Washington. 

logger. Sometimes the logger takes one, sometimes the other. In either 
case the price is so regulated as to leave him a bare siibsistence, while with 
the enormous profits of the transaction accruing to the [Masonic] null 
companies, they buy ships, hire perjurers to help steal more land, and buy 
off government officials. [The same, being generally brother masons, are 
sworn to ' keep and never reveal ' these ring secrets. Other-wise such cor- 
ruption would be more dangerous to themselves and less Hable to occur.] 
Commissioner Sparks will fail to redress the wrongs to which we have ad- 
verted, unless he avoids the mistake of selecting [Masons] to conduct the 
investigation and appoints men of integrity. " 

[The gang had secret influence enough at Washington to have Sparks 
kicked out, as soon as he began to make trouble for the thieves.] 

* * 
* 

"This [Masonic] mill company owns (?) some 80,000 acres of 

timber land, about 500 acres of it being around the mUl." 

* 
"What has become of the improvements on each quarter section of 
land owned by some of the mOl companies ? The improvements must be 
there on the laud, for the employees of the [Masonic] mill companies have 
sworn it. Cei-tainly ! But where are they ? " 

* * 
* 

"Where are the five hundred men that took up the land now owned 

by one of the great [Masonic] mill companies, and used as an instrument 

to oppress loggers and others engaged in and connected with the lumber 

business ? Echo answers, ' Where ? * " 

* * 

' ' If fourteen years imprisonment in the penitentiary at hard labor is 
a proper punishment for a poor [outsider] who, under the stress of temp- 
tation and cold weather, takes an overcoat that does not belong to him, 
what ought to be done with a [Mason] or gang of [Masons] for stealing 
land worth two millions of dollars ? " 

[The blackleg Governors, in their annual reports to the Secretary of 
the Interior and in their messages to the Legislature, had never a word to 
say as to these and other robberies done by tlteir ring brethren, while they 
gloated over and increased the misery and destruction of those who in their 
distress and distraction had stolen only a coat or a pair of blankets.] 

[Large bodies of prairie land is hkewise stolen by members of the 
gang, shielded by the prostituted courts and glorified by the ling press on 
account of their "ability and enterprise;" while outsiders who only desire 
to gain a few hundred acres honestly for their homes, are stigmatized as 
hogs and made objects of attack and plunder. ] 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Big land steals in Oregon, California, etc.— How it is done there.— Brazen 
perjury and nobodv punished.— The reason.— Wagon road Swindles. 
—Sink artesian wells to irrigate "swamp lauds."— '' Tfiree-quartei'S of 
(he land tiilesfraudulenC'—'Mm-deYing homebuilders, etc. 

*' Between I8&4 and 1869 several grants of land were made [to gangs 
of masons] for wagon roads in Oregon. The [gang.s] failed to construct 
the roads as requii-ed, and in some cases no road had been buUt, although 
the [ring] Governor had cei-tified to construction and completion. 

A special agent who made a personal examination of one of these 
roads and took affidavits of citizens, reported construction a mere pretext, 
and that for one hundred miles he could not find the trace of a road. Up- 
ward of 440,000 acres were patented to the [gang] in 1883, after this special 
report had been made. 

Patents were issued to another Uke gang after information had been 
recehred that the charter of the company had been dissolved by proceed- 
ings in the State courts. The Oregon Central Wagon road was located for 
a considerable distance through territory to which the Indian title had not 
been extinguished, but the lands were patented to the gang [by their pagan 
brethren in office at Washington] and over 100,000 acres were certified 
•which are within the permanent Indian resei-vation. 

''March 14th, 1888.— The Secretary of the Interior to-day sent to the 
President the report of J. B. McNamee relative to land grant wagon roads 
in Oregon. The report shows that grants of land were made by C^ongress 
in 1864 and 1866 to aid in the construction of these roads, over 2,500,000 
acres The report shows that none of these roads were ever constructed, 
although several [masonic] Governors of the State cei-tified to their com- 
pletion, [for the benefit of their brethren of the gang]. 

On these certificates of the [masonic] Governors, patents have been 
issued to these [pagan brethren] for 1,000,000 acres. 

"Immediately on securing certificates of completion, [by prostituted 
masonic Governors], the land grants were sold, with a \iew to putting the 
lands in the hands of nominally 'innocent (?) purchasers,' [and to thus 
secure the protection of the masonic prostituted courts, the ' good judi- 
ciary.'] " 

" With the report the Secretary submits a draft of a bill to be pre- 
sented to Congress, repealing all of said granting acts, declaring forfeited 
all rights and titles and claims thereunder, and restoring to the public do- 
main all lands gi-anted, excepting' such as may have been sold to innocent 
purchasers who are actual settlers, to the extent of one section to each of 
such purchasers. The bill directs the Attorney -General to institute suit 

(4911 



492 Big Land Steals in Oregon, California, etc. 

to cancel all patents and certifications under said acts, with the exception 
stated above." 

[But there were too many of the gang brethren behind the President, 
in Congress and the courts, to recover the stolen property, and punish the 
perjurers and thieves. And this, while small, plain burglary and perjuiy 
of outsiders is held to be and punished as a crime without mercy or 

charity !] 

* * 
* 

" In a letter to Sparks, T. S. Lang tells how the lands of Oregon have 

been seized uj^on and held by [linked i^agan gangs]. The N. P. R., the 

W. V. and C. M. ; the D. M. and the Oregon Military road. These 

gangs, almost without a shadow of law, hold lands as follows : The N. P. 

R. holds in Oregon alone 279 townships ; the W. V. and C. M. wagon road, 

144 townships ; O. M. wagon road, 143 townshi^js ; the D. M. wagon road, 

154 townships, aggregating 739 townshij^s, each containing 23,000 acres, 

aggi-egating 17,000,000 acres." 

* * 
* 

" How they [the linked masons] do it. — How many acres of 'swamp 
land ' do you supi^ose is held by one [mason] in this State ? How many ? 
Guess ! Not many persons would guess a milUon acres. But they would 
have to multij^ly this by thirteen to get at nearly the amount. O . . is now 
holding over thirteen millions of acres of 'swamp (?) land,' and he has sold 
upwards of 600,000 acres, on which he has paid twenty per cent, of the 
purchase jirice. On the other 13,000,000 acre farm he has not paid a cent, 
nor is the State or Government deriving a cent of revenue from this laud. 
On one filing he 'took uj)' 1,336,000 acres, which land extends, in town- 
ships, from six miles east of Lebanon, southeasterly, entirely through the 
State. These figures are commended to the point of investigation, and a 
refutation of their truthfulness challenged. " — Aster ian. 

[Such are the practical workings of secret sworn brethren as officials in 
our Governments and courts. \ 

* 

" In a valley, thirty miles long, ditches were dug from the stream, dams 
built, the land flooded, and then taken up [by the brethren] under the 
swamp land act." [Brazen perjury, its subordination by brethren in 
office, and their protection by prostituted courts. ] 

* * 
* 

"In Harney Valley, Or., is a tract of land which was taken up as 
swamp land, but upon which the owner is sinking an artesian well for irri- 
gating ijurjjoses. An ex-State official holds a large block of these ' swamp ' 
lands, Avhich, he informed some jjossible i)urchasers,were "capable of culti- 
vation if thoroughly in-igated." 

[Thus do mystic lurking blacklegs grow sleek — and influential at 
coiTrt — with stolen abundance.] "While the poor man [and outsider] is 
satisfied with 160 acres and thereby helps to build uj) a substantial com- 



Big Land Steals in Oregon, California, etc. 493 

munitv that emiclies a State by poj)ulation and wealth, gi^■iug life aucl 
aeti%-ity to many industries. If he fails to comply with even the technical 
leijuirements of the land laws, on account of sickness, jioverty or ignor- 
ance of the land laws [wherein judges disagree] the actual settler who has 
had the courage to go uj^on land covered with timber, lea^dug behind him 
friends, kindred and society, erect an humble home, endure i:)rivatious and 
suffer great hardships, the j^ioneer of this western country, in paving the 
way for the march of ci\'iHzation, frequently loses his claim. Is there any 
justice in this ? Has not Congress [and the courts] favored [masonic] 
corjjorations and individuals into great influence ? [Masonic] corpora- 
tions [and masonic individuals and gangs] should be treated as common 
individuals." 

"Is there any wonder at the murmurings of the people ? If Congress 
[and the courts] does not hsten to them more they will become as resist- 
less as Niagara, and then our country will witness a crisis which will 
astonish the world ! " [For " they know their rights, and knowing dare 
maintain."] 

* * 

* 

" Depredations upon pubHc timber are universal, flagi-ant and limit- 
less [by members of the gang, outsiders being snatched up and punished 
too quick] . Whole ranges of toAvnships covered with timber, the forests 
at headwaters of streams, and timber land lying along water courses and 
railroad lines, have been cut over by [masonic] lumber companies under 
l^retense of title derived through i)re-emption and homestead entries made 
by their employees, and afterward assigned to the comi^anies [of subordin- 
ation and perjury.] Steam saw-mills are established promiscuously on 
public lands. Large oj^erators employ hundi'eds, and in some cases thous- 
ands of men, ciitting government timber and sawing it up into lumber and 
shingles, which, when needed and purchased by local citizens, can only 
be obtained by them at \)vices govei'nedby tlievutrket vdlue of timber brought 
over expensive transportation routes from points of legitimate supply." 

"The Montana [masonic] Improvement company, a corjjoration 
stocked for $2,000,000 and in which the N. P. Raih'oad Co. is reputed to 
be the princij^al owner, was formed in 1883 for the piu'jDose of monopoliz- 
ing the timber traffic in Idaho and Montana, and under a contract with the 
railroad company, rianuing for twenty years, has exploited the timber from 
unsurveyed public lands for great distances along the line of said road, 
shii>ping the product of the joint trespass and controlling rates in the gen- 
eral market. Si;its have been commenced, and others are in jirogi'ess 
against the companies for the recovery of damages to the amount of several 
hundred thousand doUars. [But the court officials being masons, the suits 
were a farce, and the gangs were protected from punishment, while out- 
siders were being sent to prison for little crimes. ] 

"These lands Avere unsurveyed. No patents had been issued for 
them. The railroad had not attempted to be definitely located past the 



494 Big Land Steals in Oregon, California, etc. 

lands in question until after the date by laip, July 4th, 187 7, for its comple- 
tion, and there is no provisio7i of law by which rights can be acquired after 
the expiration of that time. The road had not been definitely located its 
entii'e length. It had no right to these or other lands. " 

"The law allowing 'right of way,' and land grant raOroad companies 
to obtain timber and other material for the constmction of their roads 
from pubhc lands adjacent to the line of the roads was, in effect, extended 
to jiermit timber to be cut wherever the [masonic] companies desired, the 
word ' adjacent ' being interj^reted [by the ' good judiciary '] to mean 
practically anywhere in the United States. Such UberaUty of interpreta- 
tion, amounting to almost unlimited privileges not warranted by law, and 
resulting in detriment to the interests of settlers already upon the lands, 
or of persons desii-ing to settle in future upon such lands, is entu-ely dispro- 
portionate to the benefit which they are likely to derive from the raih-oads 
which have thus been jiermitted [by the jarostituted courts] to despoil the 
lands of their timber." There have been various misinterpretations of law 
[by the brethi*en acting as courts (?)] and rulings and instructions to pro- 
mote and protect [linked masonic] trespassers upon public timber. [While 
outsiders are strii^jDed of their property, sent to prison and held there as 
"criminals" by the secret influence of the worthy-grand-chief-criminals 
of the lodge, as scapegoats for their own protected crimes. ] 

"B . . , having paid men $50 each for swearing on government timber land 
under pretense that they were going to Hve on said land, but really for 
the purjaose of surrendering their right to him [if they refused or raised 
on the price they would be prosecuted for perjury, but complying, they 
are protected by the 'good judiciary'] by which he gobbled up 64,000 
acres of valuable timber land [the masonic officials, of course, winking 
at and conceahng the job] was yesterday convicted of subordination of 
perjury," [he evidently had a quan-el with others in the gang, otherwise, 
he will not be jjunished very much, if at all, (N.B. — He was turned loose) 
and note, the -pile he has made at %10 or $20 per acre while under the pro- 
tection of brethren in office. ] 

"A man who claims to know, asserts that he knows of his own person- 
al knowledge that about three-fourths of all the lands ji roved up on and paid 
for in the last ten years in the United States land office in San Francisco 
have been patented contrary to the laws of the United States." 

* * 

* 

* ' According to the Government reports, in twenty-four townships in 

Colorado no evidence was found that any surveys had been made, although 

surveys had been paid for [to the brethren]. No work was done under 

the contract for surveying the Ute Indian lands, but fictitious field notes 

[sworn to as genuine] were furnished. Nearly the whole of the Territory 

of Wyoming and large portions of Montana have been surveyed under the 



Big Land Steals in Okegon, California, etc. 495 

[fraudulent] deposit system, and the lands on the streams fraudulently 
taken up under the desert land act, to the exclusion of future settlers de- 
siring homes in these Territories." 

" Among the indictments found are three against the surveyoi general 
of San Francisco." [Such "indictments" of masons are done for a bUnd, 
to make some little show, as though they were subject to the penalties of 
law like other men, they being finally — at great expense to the people and 
profit to the gang — " acquitted " and " completely vindicated," (?) whilo 
poor devils of the common people, for stealing a few dollars openly, are 
sent to State's prison for life !] 

"This MaxweU land grant, called 'the Elldns steal,' originally in- 
cluded 92,000 acres. Patents were granted to the [masonic] claimants some 
years ago, however, to the amount of nearly two millions of acres. This 
faculty of expansion is pecuhar to the [masonic] land-grabbers' posses- 
sions. There is always a httle more to take in [when the officials are 
brethren sworn ' to ever conceal and never reveal '] and [masonic] surveyor 
generals in the Ten-itories have been remarkably complaisant in allowing 
it. The protests of the citizens of New Mexico who alleged fraud in the 
location and boundaries of this claim, received no attention. There Avas 
not only no investigation, but the claim was rushed through the land office 
by [masonic] officials without regard for the interests of the Government 
or the rights of the occupants of the land. The [fraudulent] boundaries were 
accepted as genuine, and a domain given to a fraudulent [masonic] syndi- 
cate that would have made comfortable homes for a hmidred thousand 
people.'" 

' ' A great many flaws have been discovered in the robbery by which 
the patents to this land were acquii-ed, and Commissioner Sparks has 
availed himself of them to re-open the question of title. [So he was 
kicked out] and the [masonic] thieves have evicted the settlers and rioted 
in possession of their plunder." 

* 

" It is interesting to note how a modest [secret ring] contract survey- 
or could make a million dollars in so few years. It was under the cover 
of a law ostensibly designed to facilitate the settlement of public lands. 
It was in fact the device of a cunning [secret] ring of [masons] to 
seize ujion large quantities of the public domain, [under the protection 
of the ' good judiciary.'] " 

"It is notorious that large tracts of useless alkali land were siirveyed 
in Nevada, which will not be settled up in a century's time, and hues 
were alleged to have been run over precipitous and almost inaccessible 
mountains. Instead of the [masonic] ring complying with the law, 
which required the siirveyor to deposit his original field notes Avith the 
surveyor-general, B. . had a bureau [of brethren] in this city in which the 
field notes were carefully edited. After he had manijjulated them they 



496 Big Land Steals in Oregon, California, etc. 



Avere turned over to the surveyor-general [witli a wink and sign] accom- 
panied by the usual oath that they were the original field notes." 

" Is there any wonder that among the assets of a man who headed 
such a ring such items as these should figure : 1320 acres of patented land 

$165,000. One-fifth interest of stock ranch, Big Horn, $20,000. Five 

thousand five hundred acres, more or less, $110,000. Fifteen thousand 
acres of ' swamp' and overflowed land, $37,500. One-third interest in cattle 
ranches and stock, $150,000. Six hundred and forty acres of redwood 
land. But it is not only the amount of money which the [masonic] ring 
has ' secured, ' much trouble will result in the future from the filing of 
plats based ujjon jiurely imaginary surveys." 

"The Chronicle in vain demanded that the land office at Washington 
should investigate and break up the fraudulent system. IiTcfragable 
proof of the correctness of our charges was produced, but no notice was 
taken of ihem., hec<tuse the Washington land office formed part of the ring, 
[they being masonic brethren, of course they coidd not reveal each others 
secrets.]" 

"If the tragedy of Friday results in the investigation of tliis [ma- 
sonic] ring, blood will not have been spilt in vain." "Mr. B. . declared 

that ' he would live, God wiUing, to steal some few more acres from Uncle 
Sam.' Previous to the death of his daughter, a year ago, he was a promi- 
nent member of masonry and other secret societies.'" 

* * 

* 

"It is not alone in California that antagonisms are growing up be- 
tween [masonic] corporate interests [with their special pri\dleges] and 
those classed as agricultural pursuits. The farmer feels that his rights are 
being invaded alike by the [masonic] railroads and cattlemen. Elsewhere 
the antagonisms are assuming an even more formidable aspect. Throiigh 
the monstrous and illegal usurpations of public lands by [masonic] cattle 
raising comimnies, many of them foreign, the citizen of the Western Ter- 
ritories is practically denied the possibility in many localities of obtaining 
a home for himself and family. If he can find a vacant tract which some 
])enuiless cowboy has not pre-emptied for his employers, and takes it up, 
all the pressure of [masonic] greed, cruelty and lawlessness, backed by 
unlimited resources, [such as prostituted officials and courts] is exercised 
to drive him away; indeed, the scandals of the [masonic tainted] Interior 
Department show us that the small farmer has not one chance in a thous- 
and to succeed in all that vast domain where now the beef-grazier has fixed 
his gonfalon. Congress has been led [by secret influences] to encourage 
these spoliations out of aU reason and sense of justice. Foreign cattle- 
raising [masonic] syndicates, to say nothing of our own [gangs] control 
about///;/ millions of acres of the richest lands on the continent. The ab- 
sorption of such vast districts is not with a view of raising cattle for im- 
mediate market supply, but to lay the bases for immense fortunes in the 
future. It is so in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. The 



Big L.VND Steals in Oregon, California, etc. 497 

gigantic shadow of these growing monopolies has abeatly begun to darken 
all the Kocky mountain country. Yet there are thousands of individual 
citizens, who would gladly exchange poverty in over-populated centres for 
comfort on their own acres in the West, if fraud, violence and rapine [by 
the linked masonic gangs and prostituted courts] had not kej^t them out 
of their natural birthright." 

[By the connivance of secret brethren in office] "There is hardly a 
title to one of the tracts of territory used by any one of the large cattle 
companies of the "West which will bear [honest] inspection." [And the 
same can be said of the large tracts of farming and timber lands, acquired 
by gangs and individual masons.] "The land frauds in the West have 
grown to such a degree [by the connivance of secret ring officials], that the 
honest title has become the exception, ninety jjer cent, of the entries of 
land in New Mexico in the last ten years are fraudulent. Lauds would be 
entered [by plain perjury and subordination of jjerjury] in the names of 
people who have never existed, or of people who are dead. Proof would 
be submitted in the shape of forged papers [and received as genuine with 
a wink by the brethren in office] . After the patent was issued in the name 
of the fictitious or dead personage, then, within a few days, a deed of sale 
to some [masonic] capitalist would be placed u^ion record signed with a 
forged name of the alleged person to whom the patent was issued, [thus 
making it necessary for the gang to secure the election of brethren as 
county clerks and auditors as well as to have as land office officials breth- 
ren who are sworn to * ever conceal and never reveal ' each others secrets] . 
Through wholesale ring swindUng of this character enormous tracts of 
land have been gotten together. " [Herein can be seen the caiise for the 
howl against Sparks, by the gang and its press, for delaying, jjen ding investi- 
gation, the issuing of land patents, and the secret influence that kicked 
Sparks out of office. I never knew of an honest settler complaining of 
Sparks; tliey are in no hurry about their patents which often remain un- 
called for in the land office for, years after their receipt has been adver- 
tised. ] 

•X- * 

* 
'■'■Murdering honest locators. — [I give this as an example of what is be- 
ing done against the homebuilder in the West and Northwest (/// tlie time, 
in one way or another, on account of the prostitution of the government 
offices, which are thus made a flaming, blistering curse to the good citizen. ] 
A letter from a brother-in-law of a member of a former Cabinet, who is 
now in New Mexico, gives an interesting picture of the way one of the 

richest valleys was captured The [linked Masonic] ring had their 

eyes ujion this valley for a long time. They were the first to get their 
agents u^ion the ground (after the driving out of the Indians), to capture 
the entire valley and sell it to an English syndicate. C. . . , the then Judge 
of the Supreme Court, F. . . , the Kegister of the Land Office, Surveyor 
32 



498 Big Land Steals in Okegon, California, etc. 

General A. . . , U. S. Marshal M. . . , and other [Masonic] citizens -who are 
apphcants for office, engineered the scheme. 

By sending out fraudulent locators in great numbers they were able 
to secxu'e the better part of the land in this valley. They found one very 
important obstacle in their way, however. Two settlers by the names of 
G. . . and E. . . had located lands near two of the most plentiful springs "in 
the valley. The [gang] found that it was necessary to have these springs 
in order to negotiate the sale. The young Kiiusas City men refused to 
sell their claims. They were so well satisfied that they had made up their 
minds to live and die in the American valley. So a charge was trumped 
up by the U. S. Marshal against the holders of the land near the valuable 
Bjinngs, and two deputy marshals were sent to make the arrests. The U. 
S. Marshal was in the plot to obtain these lands, and so, as is alleged, was 
the [Masonic] Judge. It was evident that they had the jiower to harass 
and annoy G. . . and E. . . into giving up their valuable locations. The 
two deputies sent out were very desperate characters. No one charges 
that the [Masonic] ring directed them to kill the two locators, but it was 
well understood that they had unlimited authority in enforcing the order 
of arrest. The two locators were i)lucky men. They doubtless under- 
stood the bogus order of arrest, [as such jobs are very common], and re- 
fused to obey it. The [Masonic] secret of the struggle at the springs has 
never been made known. The two locators were killed. There is no 
doubt that they were killed by the two [brethren] who were sent out to 
arrest them. Messrs. C. . . and M. . . , who were members of the combina- 
tion to capliTre these lands, were seen in the neighborhood of G. . . 's place 
the afternoon of the murder. The bodies of the two locators were left as 
they were shot for six or eight days, before the murder became publicly 
known. Meanwhile the two deputies had been furnished with two horses 
and plenty of money and had escaped. [Of course, they feared nothing 
from the Masonic courts, but the jseople would have lynched them and, 
perhaps, would also have killed the 'good judiciary, 'which needs killing.] 
A great excitement followed the discovery of the murders. [In spite of 
the ring press that hed about the facts, threw dirt in the eyes of the peojile 
a.\\(\. justified the 'officers of the law.'] Public opinion forced the Governor 
to offer a reward for the arrest of the two ' officers of the law,' [which is 
very unusual.] They were afterwards arrested, but were released by the 
gang, who attacked the jaU and let out all of the prisoners, [with impunity, 
because the county officials were brethren.] '\Mien the liveryman who 
furnished the horses to the escaping murderers learned for what purpose 
they had been used, he went to Judge C. . . and demanded pay for his 
horses. He also preferred the same request to the then Surveyor General. 
They tried to resist his claim, but he told them that, if they did, he wotdd 
tell all that he knew about the American Valley transaction. His claim was 
paid. 

It is needless to sav that the land stained with the blood of two honest 



Big Land Steals in Oregon, California, etc. 499 

settlers was finally captured [?] by this [Masonic] gang, and sold by them 
to a body of English capitalists for a large sum. 

That the Government will ever be able to get at the real facts of the 
case, so as to award the projjer punishment and to set aside these fraudu- 
lent titles, remains to be seen. High social influences and powerful [hnk- 
ed secret] ones stand between these men and punishment. It must be re- 
membered that the [3Iasonic\ ivfluences of both puUtical parties in the teriH- 
tories work hand in hand to carry out schemes of plunder. [Witness my 
case.] 

Some of the largest fortunes of Washington have been made in this 
rich and fruitful field of the pubhc lands [and perjury, at the expense and 
often the hearts' blood of homebuilders.] To be Suiweyor General of a 
territory for even a short time, has been enough to seciu'e an independent 
fortune." 

"One of the richest [Masons] in Washington to-day is General B. . . 
He is a polished, diplomatic gentleman who has represented us abroad. 
I asked the soui'ce of his fortune and was informed that he was once Sur- 
veyor General in California, at which time he laid the foundation of his 
fortune. A gentleman who recently passed over the Southern Pacific Eail- 
road said, that when he reached a certain place in California, the conduc- 
tor called the jiassengers' attention to the fact that they were riding 
through the domain of General B. . . For an hour this swift moving train 
was in constant sight of his ''ands. " 

[But the courts are clogged when they undertake to work against the 
interest of such brethren. 

Instead of kilHng settlers on the spot, to steal and ravage their homes, 
it is found to be more j^rofitable to the gang to drag them into court (?) 
which is the more usual way ; when they are betrayed and robbed by their 
attorneys (?), 'members of the bar,' (court gang), and raih-oaded through 
to State's prison, the officials of which being brethren in the gang. And 
then by these brethren, exercising a censorship over the \'ictims' letters, 
the real facts in the cases can be concealed from the jjubhc (as in my case), 
whUe the robberies are being completed, the plunder spent or secured, 
and the grasping midnight gentry grow sleek with stolen abundance, while 
their victims are waiting, suffering and pleading in vain for justice !] 
"Beware, my Lord, of jealousy. 
It is the gi-een-eyed monster, which doth make 
The meat it feeds on. " 

* 
"The acting commissioner, in making this report to Congress, says 
that the [numerous] cases mentioned are to be regarded as merely * in- 
dicative of the situation.' There has never been any special investigation 
to determine the entire amount of public lands thus illegally held. Re- 
ports from various agents printed in the dociiment just mentioned, show a 



500 Big Land Steals in Oregon, California, etc. 

condition of things similar to tliat in Colorado in all the Slates and Terri- 
tories of the Noj'thipest. 

The document contains a small volume of wailing appeals from settlers 
who have been driven off from their properties, [by mystic gangs with 
supreme influence at court, while their plundered victims cannot even get 
a hearing in the press. ] 

This report, filled to overflowing with stories of the trampling of 
[Masonicj corporations (many of them foreign) over the rights and 
proj^erties of our Western j^ioneers, did not attract the sHghtest notice in 
the [Masonic] Senate." 

' ' These powerful individuals command some of the most jiowerf ul 
political and [Masonic] influences at Washington. The present official, 
who has been tiying to jjut a stop to the gigantic frauds in the West, is al- 
ready being made to feel the influence of the gi'eat [Masonic] rings. He 
finds the task before him greater than any one man can hope to accomplish, 
unless steadily and untiringly backed by the moral influence of the whole 
administration, [which kicked him out]. 

To seek to control and punish the [Masonic] thieves who, under cover 
of official protection, unchecked have plundered the j^ublic domain of great 
royalties, are tasks which may well stagger the most energetic and most 
ambitiously honest of men. T. C. C." 

[The General Government mtcst be reformed by the ballots of anti- 
Masons, and made suisreme over all the secret-midnight-clanish-high- 
binder governments that exist within the same and are gnawing at its vitals 
and sucking the hearts blood of its best citizens. Or the time is near at 
hand when the suffering children and children's children of the I'obbed 
and ravaged ■vWU demand a settlement, and that then- stolen heritage be re- 
stored from the si3oils of lurking ]Masoury — that equal justice shall be 
done ! 

Nor will it be such a tame affair as that now transjiii-ing in Ireland, 
but will be discussed with cold steel and dynamite by the hundred 
tons instead of hot mush and palaver. Press not falling men too far !] 



"Certain residents of Calif oi'uia have been of late spending some 
time in Oregon in the effort to discover whether they own any swamp 
land in this State. They claim to have been taken in by that loveliest 
of swamp angels who lived so long in Lane county, and who dejiosited 
his slender form in an old arm chair in the Secretary of State's office 
at Salem Avhen the bill relative to swamp lands was pending, and when 
he learned that the Governor had approved it, off"ered for filing his 
modest claim for all of Eastern and Southern Oregon that Avas not proved 
to be high and dry land. Then the legislatiires met in the old Holman 
block on Commercial street, and Hen Owen was too cumbersome to move 
far or move quickly, so he jilanted his armchair within reach of Sam 
ISIay, then Secretary of State, to be convenient. There was a system 



Big Land Steals in Oregon, California, etc. 501 

of grapevine telegraph in vogue among the conspirators, and the moment 
the executive signature was aflSxed this vine was set in motion, and less 
than two seconds had not intervened before Hen Owens was shoving 
his document into Sam May's hand and demanding that it be put on 
file. Some simple souls may think this is exaggerated, but they don't 
know the history of Oregon swamp land legislation, if they treasure such 
a thought. The innocents from California are trying to prove their 
right to some of this land by purchase, and have got so far as to learn 
that they are badly sold. One thing they all agree on, and that is that 
Oregon swamp land matters are muddled, that many a swindle has been 
practiced, and that government agents who came here on the trade 
were taken iuto partnership, while the one who made an honest inves- 
tigation was suddenly recalled. Those are the conclusions the California 
visitors have come to." 

[Such IS practical masonry — they do this Avith imjjunity, because 
(heir brethren are in office. ] 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Railroads big grants, etc., in the Northwest, etc. — How they are worked. 
— ^What they cost the gangs. — What they control. — A servile and pur- 
chased press. — Advice to settlers. ^ — What a "territorial pioneer" 
says. — What the people say. — "Awake! Arise! or be foeever 

FALLEN ! 

iVi E. S . . , agent of the N. P. Eailroad company [masonic] , visited 
several towns hereabouts [in Washington Temtory] and finally left for 
the East. Immediately upon his dej^arture it was noticed that nearly all 
the i^urchasable paj^ers in this section became strenuous supporters of the 
[masonic] company, and were vociferously opposed to forfeiture of its 
unearned land grant." 

"When Mr. S. . returned, he wrote some letters for the press, from 
one of these the following extract is taken. It refers to the Cascade 
Branch of the N. P. Railroad in Washington Tenitory." 

"The cost of the branch will be about $7,000,000, of Avhich the great 
tunnel will consume about ^2,000,000. The company expect to obtain 
the money for construction by the issue of bonds at the rate of $25,000 a 
mile. It is thought there will be a margin between the actual cost of con- 
struction and the proceeds of the sale of the bonds nearly sufficient to 
build the tunnel." 

"The length of this branch is 245 miles. Its construction, including 
two miles of tunnel, -ttall cost $7,000,000. The land grant 'in aid' of its 
building is forty square miles, or 25,600 acres for every lineal mile of 
road, that is to say for building this branch the company Avill claim title 
to 6,272,000 acres of public land," [and own the raikoad besides.] "This 
land lies in alternate sections, Avith those reseiwed by the Government. 
Not an acre of public land within the limits of the railroad grant can be 
jiurchased of Government at less than $2.50 per acre. The large area of 
coal lands lying therein is obtainable from Government only by jjaying 
$20 jser acre. At Government price ($2.50 per acre) the value of the land 
grant to the railroad for this branch aggregates $15,680,000, con.siderably 
more than double the [liberal, not counting inside stealing] estimated cost 
of the Avhole line, tunnel and all. In this we have not iuchided the largely 
increased value of lands containing coal and iron, tlioiisands of acres of 
which are included in the grant. Nor has the real value of the laud been 
given. On the west side of the mountains the average value of the laud 
grant is not less than $10 per acre. The average value along the whole line 
of road, at a low estimate, is not less than $5 jjer acre, or a valuation of 
.$31,360,000, nearly /(y«r and one-half times the coslofits construction." Upon 
what grounds is this enormous surrender of public property demanded ? 
Upon what reasoning can it be justified ? Why should [masonic rings] 

I '.02 1 



Advice to Settleus. 503 



be thus excejitionally favored ? ^Ylly should public property be used to 
build railroads for private ownekship ? Why, in addition to presenting 
a complete railroad to a [masonic] corporation should it be given a subsidy 
quadruple its value ? Have [linked masons] any greater claims upon the 
jjubhc than other men ? Ai-e they entitled to more consideration than 
other citizens ? [Outsiders cannot get any such concessions.] Is not this 
[gang] entitled to less ? Has it not forfeited its right to its claim by long 
continued and exasi^erating delays ? For more than twenty years it has 
2)layed fast and loose with the Government. It was conceived in [mystic] 
fraud. The original owners of its franchise never contributed a dollar 
to building its road. The common stock of the company to-day repre- 
sents not a dollar contributed to its construction. It is purely watex*. 
Every mile of the road has been constructed with boiTowed money [on the 
grant from the Government] . The President of the compauj^ saA's that 
the Cascade branch will be built by the same means. It ought not to be 
very difficult to raise $25,000 per mile on a land grant worth at Govern- 
ment prices more than twice that sum. An unencumbered company could 
raise double the amount." 



"The proposition to confirm to the Northern Pacific a land grant for- 
feited July 4, 1S77, is identical with making a new grant. It is in conflict 
■«-ith law and justice. It is opi^osed to the declarations of the rei)ublican 
[and democratic] parties in National conventions. [For a blind, as they 
are both controlled by the secret brethren] . It is an outrageous attempt 
to pervert a gift which, when made, was [supposed to be] for the i^ublic 
good, into an engine of oppression and injury of indefinite duration. It 
is an assaidt upon the , landed heritage of the iieojjle of the United States, 
unwarranted and indefensible. It is an outrage against which the people, 
not alone of Wasliington Territory, but of the whole nation indignantly 
protest," [but they protested in vain, as the gang was, and is, in power. \ 

"But if it be wrong to confirm to the N. P. lands along the line of its 
completed road, not bitilt within the time specified in its charter [and an 
extension of time on top of that] , what shall be said of the jn'oposition, now 
made by its agents and lobbyists [brethren] to allow it to go on, and by 
building more miles of road, obtain a large additional area of the public 
land, the best, the most valuable in the Territory ? Wliat shall be said of 
a claim to earn jjublic lands, Avorth not less on an average than $125,000 
2)ei- mile, by building railroads in Washington Territory in 1884, 1885, 1886 
and 1887 ? This is the claim of the N. P. Co. for building the Cascade 
branch, Avhieh its officers and organs do not hesitate to say will be imme- 
diately remunerative." 

" Is it not monstrous ? Is it not insulting to ask the i)eoi)le to justify 
or advocate such an outrageous demand ? " [By voting for the brethren 
in the gang for office ?] 

"Commissioner Sparks says, 'the N. P. road had not attempted to be 



504 Eailroad Gkants, etc. 



definitely located [West of the Missouri river] , until after tlie date by 
law, July ith, 1877, for its completion, ' and that there is no provision of 
law by which rights to the land can be acquired after the expiration of 
that time." 

* 

'^ In Mexico, a few years ago, a valuable land grant was given to the 
Mexican National Eailroad Company, on condition [Uke our roads] that 
the Hne be completed within a certain time. The time expu-ed a few 
weeks ago, the line was not built, and, without any ceremony whatever, 
the land grant was declared forfeited. That was all there was about it. 
So with the Mexican Central Kailroad. Before this line was built the 
Government granted it certain jirivileges on condition that it would make 
no discrimination between shippers or between towns, and that its freight 
tariffs should not be changed without the Government being notified in 
advance. The comjDany having violated both of these conditions, the 
authorities are coming doAvn upon it "wath a determination and vigor which 
amazes the stockholders, who are accustomed to the American [Masonic] 
way of doing things; letting [Masonic gangs] do as they jjlease ■with the 
people's ijroperty." 

* 

"It is not trvie that these lands have been opened for settle- 
ment by the [Masonic] N. P. B. Co. It is not even true that lands equal 
to those in its grant have been so opened. On the contrary, from the in- 
ception of its work it has/ollowed settlement. It is even now claiming the 
right to locate lands in Washington Territory in heu of lands within the 
limits of its grant in Minnesota and Dakota, because before its road was 
built there were not left enough unsettled lands to satisfy its claims. 
Does this indicate pioneering ? It is a fact, that ahead of its railroad con- 
struction, away ahead, marched the pioneer settler; that from the time its 
granting act was passed, 20 miles outside the hmits of its gi'ant have been 
withdrawn from sale by the Government, to recomi>ense it for those lands 
within said limits, occui^ied by settlers [even before the location of the 
railroad.] Its great difficulty to-day in this territory is to find enough 
laud unoccujiied to cover its huge claim. Of the nearly 45,000,000 acres 
of 2)ublic land in this territory this [Masonic gang] lays claim to moi'e than 
oiie-tliird. What has it opened to settlement by constriaction of its railroad 
here, which have in any measure comjiensated for the surrender of so 
great a proportion of our landed area ? We allege that it has prevented the 
construction of other railroads [and the opening to free navigation of the 
Columbia river, of far greater importance than all the railroads in the terri- 
tory. ~\ That but for the enormous advantage \corruptly'\ given it by this 
land grant, other roads would ere this have been traversing this territory 
in several directions ; that but for this land grant a railroad Avould long 
ago have been built from Puget Sound across the Cascade mountains; 
[two are now building without any Government aid.] That but for the 
land gi-ant a railroad would be at once built from Puget Sound to the 



Advice to Settlers. 505 



navigable waters of tlie upjjer Columbia; tliat but for tbis grant coal 
mines and iron mines would be now opened and in successful jDroduction; 
tbat a large area of valuable agricultural laud woiild be immediately oc- 
cupied, that, in short, the territory would grow rapidly in population and 
wealth." 

" Advice to Settlers. — We mean settlers on the lieu lands. They must 
combine together and refuse to abandon the lands they have settled upou, 
if the [Masonic] company aims to eject them because of not paying six 
prices for said lands. Don't pay such high prices for, but hold on to your 
lands, by force, if necessary; and if Congress is not a den of thieves, relief 
mil come." 

* 

"The [masonic] comijany had better stop altogether the sale of lands 
to which it has not, and cannot obtain, title, and so save itself and innocent 
purchasers from a va.st deal of future trouble. [When outsiders do this 
they are caMeHi felons and ' made exami^le of ' by making them deliver all 
their jiroperty to the court gang and sending them to State's prison, where 
the blackleg-flunkey-of-the-railroad-gang-Governor tells them that ' crime 
should be made hideous,' and 'that we have a good judiciary,' because it 
stands in with the gang. ] 

■X- * 

* 

' ' [Masonic] railroads must have many extensions of time in which to 
comjDly with the law, in order to get land for nothing. Who ever heard 
of a settler, a homesteader, or pre-emptor being given an extension of time 
when he had faUed to comply -vnth the law ? Although he could give a 
much better excuse than railroads ever offer. Sickness or death in a 
settler's family or losses by fire or flood are no excuse for an individiial 
[outsider] , but [masonic] corj^orations [-with their special x>rivileges\ must 
have the land whether they comply with the law or not. Robbery is too 
mild a term." 

* 

' ' In reply to [blackleg] editors of papers owned by the [masonic] N. 
P. R. R., who never tii-e of claiming that if any portion of the land graut 
was forfeited that the road would be so crij^pled that it could not be com- 
pleted. We refer to the following paragrai^h from a pamphlet published 
by the [masonic] comjiany :" 

"TheN. P. gi-ant is twenty times as large as the Ilhnois Central's 
[which pays to the State a part of its income while the N. P. doesn't even 
-psLj its taxes], and on the question of the comparative intrinsic worth of 
two grants, we give the ppinion of John Wilson, who organized the land 
department of the Illinois Central road, and was for many years its honored 
commissionei". He says, 'I consider the grant to the Northern Pacific 
worth from fifty to one hundred per cent, per acre more than the Central's. 
It is a small estimate to say that if this grant is projjerly managed, it will 
build the entire road, connecting Avith the present terminus of the grand 



506 Railkoad Grants, etc. 



trunk, tliroiigli to Puget Sound, and liead of navigation on the Columbia 
—fit out an entire fleet of sailing vessels and steamers for the China, East 
India, and coasting trade, and leave a sinylus that ivill roll ttp to millions.'" 

"Their gi-eed is so great that not only do they claim land where they 
have but the shadow of a title, but they claim land along the branch 
from Portland to Tacoma, even when the joint resolution of 1869, au- 
thorizing the building of that branch expressly stated that it should claim no 
land from the United States hy reason of the building of that road." 

* * 

A '' Terr ito7-ial Pioneer" writes. — "I wish to ask whose land this is 
that [masonic] officials gave away, and where they got the right to give the 
people's land away to a thie-sdng, boxed-up ] masonic] monopoly, rob- 
bing American citizens of their rights, and driving old settlers off their 
land to the poor house and the clam beach, the tax-payers furn- 
ishing i^ublic land to give away to [masonic] railroad thieves to sell 
back again to the people at ^10 per acre, so the [linked brethren] 
thieves can buy up a rotten Congress and to put up [masonic] raih-oad 
jobs ? What is the good of the railroad ? They charge so much you 
can never ride on one. They charge a man ten cents a mile. The 
[masons] have given [to their brethren] about all the country. There 
is no other to give except Alaska, and they will give that away next 
spring as soon as it thaws out." [And you will vote for the secret 

brethren for office, will yoti ?] 

* * 

"The Northern Pacific holds [fraudulently] 2,680,000 acres of land in 
"Washington Territory as a gift for building a road from Calama to Ta- 
coma alone, enough to build the road three times over, yet the rates of 
transi)ortation between these two places is about all the produce is worth 
and just as high as they can be mthout interdicting trade altogether," 
[in i)lain violation of law, but they do it with impunity because their 
brethren are in office and they own the courts.] 

' ' It seems to think it makes no difference whether it completes the 
road in the time stipulated in the charter, or ten or fifteen years thereafter. 

It goes into our legislature and so warps a bill on taxation of railroad 
lands that the company is forever free from taxes on them. On taxation 
of the railroad proper under the 'gross earnings law,' all its [stolen] 
millions of dollars worth of timber, coal, iron mines, shops, bridges, 
stations, road bed, rolling stock, and lands in a belt 80 miles ^vide, are ex- 
empt. " 

"It has come into this valley after it had been settled twenty years, de- 
stroyed the legal and commercial capital of the settlei-s, in order to build 
upon its ruins another town, the profits from which speculation goes 
into the pockets, not of the stockholders, but a syndicate [of masons] 
constituting a wheel within the system of that g7-eat clock, whose hands 



Advice to Settlers. 507 



indicate on the dial jilate the wreck of iirivate fortune and the blast- 
ing of the holies of frontier settlers," [and so they are a secret ring 
•within our Government, making of it a machine of opjiression against 
the full fledged citizen, and a shield for their own crimes, j 

"It controls the timber trade, the elevator business, the grain trade, 
beef trade, and nearly eveiy avenue of business is made to pay homage 
and revenue to it, and any man who does not favor and crook the hinges 
of his knee in craven obedience is ostracised by this powerful tyrant. 

' ' The whole country is terrorized by the multiphcity of evils contin- 
ually si3rung by this hydra-headed [masonic] monster." 

"The peoi^le bear the burdens of taxation [and of plunder] and the 
gi-eat ['charitable order'] receives the profits of the people's labor, and 
proves by its acts that it has not for us the sympathy that formally ex- 
isted between master and slave, but that it is continually whispering to 
itself, 'the jjeople be d d ! ' " 

"Its rates of freight are so high that farmers, miners, and stock 
growers find it profitable to freight by wagon 150 miles alongside of the 
[masonic] railroad." 

"It entei"s conventions, dictates platforms and candidates, and 
[secretly] conducts camjjaigus ; it bribes newspapers; it emjjloys [ma- 
sonic] orators to address the intelligent, and thugs to crack the party 
whip over the heads of the ignorant ; it continually strives not only to 
make its own projDeriy very valuable but to make that of its neighbors 
worthless ; [owming the courts] it is a continual litigant ; it heeds not the 
rights of others and legalizes injustice by controlli)ig judges and juries," 
[yet people vote for their secret sworn brethren for office.] 

"It is a s-ndndler ; it sells lands which do not belong to it, evades the 
payment of taxes, and obtains money under false pretenses." 

' ' The matter has got down to this : Shall the people do the legislat- 
ing, or shall the [Knked masonic] raihoads do it ? Shall the peo^jle rule 
or shall the [Hnked masonic] railroads rule them ? We are bound hand 
and foot in the [linked masonic] railroad chains. We should struggle and 
fight till they are broken." 

* 

. . . . " Conventions have been packed [by the gang] , meetings have 
been broken up or controlled, legislatures have been captured. While 
this has been going on, the vast majority of the journals of the Tenitory — 
many of them corrupt, others blind — have not only failed to raise their 
voices in behalf of popular rights, but have given themselves over body 
and soul to a soulless master ; have failed to keei? faith with the ijeople, 
but have been ever ready and willing to aid in any measure to strengthen 
the hold which the [linked masonic gang] has already secured in the 
politics of the Territory. As a rule, the press has sacrijiced the interests of 
the people for paltry bribes, or because of the insolent threats of a domineer- 
ing [linked masonic gang] and its strikers." 



508 Eailroad Grants, etc. 



"Every trick of the corrupt politician, every device for blinding the 
people, has been made use of by the hirelings of this [mystic] gang. Not 
only have newspaj^ers been bribed and bullied, but voters have been pur- 
chased and intimidated. A determined effort has been made to control 
Washington while it is yet a Territory, to bind it hand and foot, so that 
upon its admission to the Union it woidd be a mere pocket burrow [and 
so it is] of which the offices would be doled out as rewards to those who 
by their unscrupulousness or their activity in the cause of their master 
had won the approbation of the [masonic] land thieves and railroad 
kings." [Even their most abject flunkeys, the ex-blackleg Governors, are 
being puffed up by masonic blackleg editors for United States Senators 
of Washington State.] 

"That one may smile, and smile and be a villain." 

" Wbuld'st thou have a serpent sting thee twice ? " 



[During the building of the N. P. road, the masonic officials and their 
friends had a picnic over the same, and their secret ring brethren and 
flunkeys of the press urged the people to receive and cheer them as the 
more degraded Russian subject does their Czar.] "The gi-eat moving 
menagerie contains 336 persons, the estimated expense of whom, during 
the trip, will be half a milHon dollars, or a Httle over 81,488 each. The 
supply of wines and liquors costing ^23,000. The odd sections of the 
people's land built this road, and we may expect that the proceeds of the 
even sections in the hands of the settlers will pay this half million of ex- 
penses of this great menagerie, and the American people are expected to 
do homage to the programme. What a country ! What a people ! 



"In the bituminous coal field the N. P. Co. 'owns' 480,000 dcres, 
valued at the low government price of $20 per acre would amount to 
$9,600,000, not one-fourth their real value, for the coal. This belt of coal 
land embraces the most heavily timbered region of like extent in the 
world. Monster fir and cedar trees, many of them from six to nine feet 
iu diameter, and from 300 to 400 feet in height, cover the earth so thickly 
that, standing in the midst, the range of vision is confined within a few 
hundred feet on all sides, as by a dense wall of wood. This estimated at 
60, 000 feet to the acre, worth seventy -five cents per thousand, that is $45 per 
acre, or $21,600,000 ; this added to the $9,600,000 and we have $31,200,000, 
which is exclusive of the lignite belt. 

This estimate is for a strip of twelve to fifteen miles in width, reaching 
one hundred miles in length. It does not include their value for agricul- 
tural purposes after the timber is removed, and while the coal is being 
mined, nor as town sites for mining centres. It does not include the vahie 
of other coal fields adjacent, nor iron mines contiguous, nor of the thous- 
ands of acres of rich bottom lands along the streams. It is the estimated 



Advice to Settlers. 509 



value of a strip of land, over two-fifths of Avliicli lies in this (King) county. 
What is the value of its ichole claim witlun King county alone ? " 

[If honestly managed, at $20,000 jjer mile, "$31,200,000" would build 
over 1,500 miles of railroads/(;;- tlie connti/, and the peojjle oioi the roads ; 
and so on all along the line. This would be some of the benefits of a Gov- 
ernment (sujireme over all the secret, alien ring governments within it) by 
the people /or the people. Now it is by the secret rings fo?' the secret 
rings. By the masons/o?- the masons.] 

* * 

* 

' ' If the land and property of the raih'oads in Dakota were taxed us 
other pi'operty, the [masonic] company would pay about a milhon and a 
half dollars into the treasury. As it is it pays $170,000 — ^[sometimes]. 

At this time the company is in arrears $103,000. The Treasurer le -vied 
upon eight locomotives to compel its payment, but [of course] the court 
decided in favor of the [masons." Who else will the covLits j^rotect against 
paying taxes ?'\ 

"The Union Pacific Avas built and equipped by the people of the 
United States, for it is well known that the projectors paid in only about 
one and a half million dollars towards its construction." 



"The original stockholders of the Northern Pacific never contributed 
a dollar toward building that road. The only expenditures made by those 
[masons] among whom the $100,000,000 in stock was divided, and to whom 
it was practically delivered, were those for procuring \inysteriously'\ the 
passage of the original charter and land grant act and subsequent amenda- 
tory resolutions through Congress." [Secret brethren in Congress can 
secretly and safely trade with their brethren out of Congress in despoil- 
ing the people's wealth, because they are so strongly obligated and 
sworn to "ever conceal and never reveal" each others secrets,] and 
some few thousand dollars advanced afterwards by Jay Cooke & Co. to 
pay for preliminary examination of the route prior to the execution of the 
contract made "with that firm to sell bonds of the road for the purj^ose ol' 
its constraction. In all, these expenditures did not exceed $150,000, in 
fact, it was stipulated in a written contract that the shareholders in the 
franchise should not be assessed to exceed the above sum in the aggregate. 

At this date these contracts are interesting reading. Much has been 
written about the hardships, struggles, losses, etc., of the original pro- 
jectors of the Northern Pacific company. The facts are that only the un- 
suspecting public, who bought shares at fictitious values of men whom 
they cost nothing, have been victimized. Not a dollar received from 
.sales of stock in that company was invested in its construction. The 
first 500 miles were constructed between 1873 and 1879 Avith the jiroceeds 
of the sale of $30,000,000 bonds of the road, and its land grant. Up 
to that time, since the road was chartered, six years had elapsed during 



510 Raileoad Grants, etc. 



whicli tlie original stockholders had divided among themselves or as- 
signed to Jay Cooke & Co. the whole capital stock of the company 
and issued to jjarties to the contract a large portion of its paid up shares. 
Here are a few details of one of the most bold-faced frauds and iniquitous 
agreements on record. The franchise of the N. P. R. R. was in 1867 the 
proiaerty of Smith and [other brethren]. The cost of lobbying [secret 
intrigue] the act of 186-i through Congress, and incidental expenses up to 
that date, amounted to S102,000. In January, 1867, a contract was made 
whereby this proj^erty — the charter, etc., — was divided into twelve shares 
of .f3,500 each. This contract provided that subscribers should become 
jointly interested with Smith 'in proiDortion to the shares, or parts of 
shares, taken in the charter or franchise of the N. P. R. R. with all its 
rights, powers, privileges and immunities. ' It further jsrovided that aill 
parties thereto should unite to get aid from Congress [more secret intrigu- 
ing, in which an outsider could not hope to succeed] by further legislation, 
and contribute pro-rata, according to the interest held by each for that 
j)urpose [for lobbying, intriguing] and that as soon as Congress granted 
further aid [special jDrivileges and exemptions denied to other men] an or- 
ganization should be effected to commence construction of the road, and 
secure the [people's] land granted by the [masonic] act. On Jnlj 3, 
1867, three years after the charter had been granted, the above agreement 
"was amended by stipulating that the total amount which each of the twelve 
shares should be compelled to contribute, should not be over $12,500, in- 
cluding the amount already paid ($8,500) making a total of $150,000, as 
the limit of the amount which the owners of the charter could be com- 
pelled to contribute. 

Thus matters remained imtil 1869, no railroad yet having been com- 
menced. In that year — May 20, 1869 — an agreement was made by the 
holders of the franchise with Jay Cooke & Co. by which the shares were 
increased to eighteen, six of which were to be given to Jay Cooke & Co., 
and the capital stock divided as follows : $100,000,000 stock, $80,001,000 
to be issued i?i full ixiid np stock pro rata among the eighteen shares as 
follows : $124,500 per share immediately, and $54,000 per share "as often 
as each twenty-five miles of road is constructed." The balance of the 
capital stock ($19,999,000) to be delivered to Jay Cooke <fe Co. in paid up 
[in fraud] stock as follows : As often as said Jay Cooke «& Co. shall sell a 
$1,000 bond, $200 of the stock shall be delivered. 

One hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) of 73-10 bonds were 
ordered issued, to be sold by said Jay Cooke & Co., at eighty-eight cents 
on the dollar. 

Not a foot of raih-oad had yet been constructed, although five years 
had passed since the charter was granted, and application had twice been 
made to Congress for extension of the time when it should be completed. 

On the first of January, 1870, the foregoing contract was modified. 
During the interval Jay Cooke & Co. had investigated the route, pros- 



Advice to Seitlers. 511 



pects, etc. , of tlie proposed rdilroatl, and the change was made in compli- 
ance with the demands of that company. The eighteen shares were in- 
creased to twenty-four, of which Jay Cooke & Co. were to have twelve. 
A companj vfasorganized/or purchasinff lands, towtisites, etc., [so grasping 
are masons as well as clanish] the stock to be divided in the same propor- 
tion ; that is, the original twelve interests to have one-half, and [brother] 
Cooke & Co. the other half. The stock was then re-ajspropriated as fol- 
lows : S80, 001, 000 jn-o rata among the twenty-four shares "full paid vj) 
stock," [with their chins] S93,400 per share to be delivered immediately, 
and $40,500 on each of said twenty-four shares as often as twenty -five 
miles of road are completed ; the balance of the ca^ntal stock, .^19, 999,000 
to be given to Jay Cooke & Co. as provided in the previous agreement. 

Under this agreement Cooke & Co. sold $30,000,000 of the bonds of 
the N. P. R. company, out of the proceeds of which the cost of con- 
structing all the railroad built prior to the failure of Cooke & Co., in 1873, 
were paid. Not another mile of road was built untQ money was again 
raised by sale of bonds. The only equivalent given for every share of 
stock divided up j^rior to that time was the cost of procuring the franchise 
[secret intriguing] and the services rendered by Cooke & Co. in selling 
bonds. 

When the N. P. R. Co. was reorganized, after being bought in by the 
bondholders, the holders of this "full paid up stock" were given "com- 
mon" stock of the newly organized company, and to the bondholders and 
others having secured claims were assigned "preferred " stock. Thus the 
common stock of the N. P. R. Co. represents a total benefit to that cor- 
poration, a total contribution to the cost of the great overland railroad, of 
less than $150,000. The result is that the people along the line are to be 
taxed indefinitely to pay dividends, ui3on what ? Under the conti'act as given 
above there were issued, or the holders of shares in the original franchise 
were entitled to receive about $23,000,000 iu full paid uj) stock of the N. 
P. R. Co., and upon this $23,000,000, or its equivalent; it is expected 
to pay dividends [besides the immense empire of land] wrung from the 
public by extortionate freight and passenger charges." 



"A long railroad is mapped out, and the ['charitable '] men who hold 
the franchise issue first mortgage bonds for the entire amount of the cost, 
including market price of laud grants at Washington ; [could outsiders 
get land gi'ants without employing a masonic lobby to secretly and cor- 
ruptly intrigue with their mystic brethren ? Say, could they?] Profits of 
construction comiiany [a ring within the ring] and loss upon bonds sold 
at a discount, [because of the fraudulent business] holding in hand for pri- 
vate use some preposterous amount of stock, no matter what, representing, of 
course, nothing but the cost of the i^riuting and the knavery of holders. 
The road is declared able to pay immediate dividends on the whole 
[swindle]. The stock is boomed. In some instances a dividend or two 



512 Eailroad Grants, etc. 



have even been paid out of proceeds of bonds sold. Speculation sets in, 
and [fools] hasten to buy the stock at any price. Even experienced busi- 
ness men, who would ridicule a purchase of a given stock at jiar, will con- 
sider the same stock increased to ten times the amount of its face value as 
cheap at twenty. Of this the [' charitable '] sharpers are well aware, and 
they are careful to water to the taste of purchasers. Indeed, as the whole 
thing is fictitious [hke conduct in others done on a small scale is called 
counterfeiting, and a crime for which they are languishing in prison] , and 
merely a matter of paper and ink, it is quite immaterial to them whether 
they print "100 shares ' on a certificate of stock and sell it at ten, or print 
' ten shares ' and sell them at par. 

* 

" Our new countries, where the vii'gin wheat lands he, that we depend 
on for food, and expected to control the market of the world by, are 
gridironed with railroads built, and dishonestly built, with money ob- 
tained by selling bonds. Not a cent was jiut into the stock. From the 
Canadian Pacific southward to the Gulf of Mexico, the east and west hues, 
with a single exception, are roads built for the sole purj)ose of plunder- 
ing the people. Theu' stock represents nothing. But by the most out- 
rageous laws ever submitted to by an intelhgent people, the [' very 
worthy gi-and masters '] of those roads "\rill be allowed (have been al- 
lowed in some cases) to wi-ing out of the people sufficient money to 
pay a dividend on stock that has no more actual value than circus 
posters. Tax collectors [for the gangs] sit in every freight office through- 
out our land, who gather the tribute paid to the [worthy grand ' char- 
itable' (?)] dignitaries of transj^ortation, who were created by the [secret 
intrigue of spurious, 'mysterious' masoniy]. 

" There are hundreds of milhons of doDars of railroad stock, mort- 
gages on the industry of the people, on which dividends are being paid 
that represent nothing but the effrontery [rather the secret intrigue and 
prostitution of the governments and courts] of [masonic] raih-oad directors. 

One of the fundamental laws of our system of government is that the 
people shall not be taxed wdthout their consent. This law is ngidly ad- 
hered to in all matters of State, county, town and school district taxation. 
A bond that has the taint of irregiilarity about it is worthless. The people 
have never hesitated to rejjudiate an illegal obhgation, but they have 
tamely submitted to the [masonic] outrage of allowing the [midnight 
brethren] to issue hundreds of milhons of dollars of railroad stock that 
represents nothing but the cost of printing, and they have jjaid dividends 
on this [masonic] stock. Annually millions of doUars are collected from 
the [half-housed, half-fed, and three-quarter-mortgaged] people to pay 
these charges [of the government within our Government] that are a vio- 
lation of the natural rights of mankind. If the people murmur and 
threaten unfavorable [but honest] legislation, their [mis] representatives 
[linked masons] are purchased with the money they have paid to the 



Advice to Settlers. 513 



[gangs, which can safely be done when they are so strongly obUgated and 
sworn to ' ever conceal and never reveal ' each others secrets] . So the 
people have not been able to obtain relief, [as they vote for masons for 
office]. State representatives, Congressmen, Senators, Judges, all are 
controlled, purchased with money that has been drawn from the \bUnded\ 
people under the cover of unjust [and flawed^ laws." 

* * 

[Here follows an example of the efforts and expression of the people of 
the Northwest as to the foregoing subject.] 

''Resolved, By the people of Whitman county, that the course the N. 
P. company is pursuing is one that is detrimental to every interest of the 
country, and inflicting hardships unknoAvn in the history of our country, 
and justly causing the people all over the Territory to organize for the 
better protection of their rights against this grasjiing [masonic] monopoly 
which has laid claim to a large tract of country without shoA\ing where 
they had lost any land, or without resiiecting the claims of settlers made 
prior to their selections, or without any title whatever derived from Gov- 
ernment, [the grant having lapsed] offering these lands for sale at a price 
beyond the reach of those who are justly entitled to them, and offering 
simply contracts, which, in themselves, are but a system of robbery, bind- 
ing the purchaser to make annual imi^rovements, and after jDayiug a certain 
amount down, the balance to be i^aid at stipulated times, and if any por- 
tion remains unpaid at the specified time they reserve to themselves the 
right to enter and take jjossession wdthout any legal action whatever, thus 
barring the settler from that light which every citizen is entitled to. They 
also reserve the right to enter and take possession of a strijJ, 400 feet in 
width, whenever they may Avant it for railroad pu7poses, binding the jiur- 
chaser and his heirs forever to build and maintain a good and substantial 
fence on each side of said strij), also resei-Adng the right of sjn-ings wher- 
ever they may be found, if necessary, for raih'oad jjurjioses ; also all min- 
eral and coal that may be found thereon, thus leaving the purchaser at all 
times in their power. Their discrimination and extortionate freights are 
such that they are crippling every industry and robbing the peoi^le of t]i 
interior, who are labono;isly struggling to build homes for themselves an . 
famiUes, of all their hard earnings, leaving them but Httle better than 
slaves, toihng from early mom till late at eve, that these grasping [linked 
masons] may live in palaces and roU in wealth and grandeur, while the 
people live in poverty and groan under the burden. Be it further 

"Resolved, That we deeply deplore the fact that we are under the 
despotic jjower of a [ ' charitable ' gang] and our only hope of i^rotection 
is from the halls of legislation, and that Ave do earnestly entreat Congress 
to regulate the inter-State traffic so as to protect the i)eople from such 
gigantic robbery, and also to take such action in regard to the land grant 
as will give to them their justly earned titles, and the balance to be held 
and sold only at Government price, and we earnestly beseech Congress to 
33 ' 



514 Railroad Grants, etc. 



make such appro i^riations and in such a manner [that is, so the gang don't 
steal it about all, as is usually done] as will speedily open the Columbia 
river, -which is the great highway of transj)ortation, that the land grants 
which the [masonic] railroad company are now seeking to hold be declared 
forfeited, and the titles to innocent jjurchasers be confii-med, the rest sold 
at Government price and the money exjjended in sjjeedily completing the 
opening of the Columbia river, which alone is in the interest of the 
l^eople." 

* 

"Snake Eivek Mass Meeting." — Of the peojjle of Snake river, Tu- 
kannon and Pataha sections. 1884. 

" Wliereas, In 1864, by act of Congress, lands were granted to the N. 
P. R. K. Co. , to aid in the construction of a railroad from Lake Superior 
to Puget Sound, and 

Wliereas, The original grant was large and valuable enough to con- 
struct the entire road without other help within the time specified in the 
granting act, and ten years have elapsed since that time expired, and 

Wliereas, The [masonic] company deferred building the road until the 
country through which it passed was sufficiently developed to make said 
road a source of profit without the aid of the land, and said land being 
settled and improved without the aid and advantage of the railroad which 
should have been constructed for the purjjose of developing the country, 
and 

Whei-eas, Parties interested in the N. P. R. R. Co. have influenced 
[their brethren] the boards of trade of Walla Walla and Portland to ex- 
press sentiments contrary to those really existing, for the purpose of influ- 
encing legislation, therefore 

Resolved, first, That we demand that all land not actually earned by 
the construction of the road within the time specified in the granting act, 
be forfeited and restored to the pubhc domain. 

Resolved, second. That the N. P. R. R. Co. is not justly entitled to an 
acre of land in this Territory. 

Resolved, third, That the land in this Territory claimed by the N. P. 
II. R. Co. justly belongs to the settlers who had improved and developed 
t his country, and as citizens of the United States should obtain title at 
government's requirements. 

Resolved, foui'th. That all United States Senators and Representatives 
in and Delegates to Congress be and are hereby respectfully requested to 
procure the forfeiture of the lands unearned." 

[But the people had no more influence, by petition, for right and jus- 
tice at Washington, than they had with blackleg-masonic-Governors at 
Oh-mina, Washington Territory.] 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

As TO THE MARTIAL LAW TROUBLE IN PROTECTING MASONIC CHINAMEN AND 
MASONIC CRIMINALS ON PuGET SoUND WHEN AMERICAN CITIZENS WERE 
PILLAGED, MURDERED, AND DRIVEN OUT WITH NO TROOPS OR MARTIAL 

LAW TO PROTECT THEM. — Condensed from the i^ress with explana- 
tions, etc. — (How to read newspapers "between the lines," or what 
belongs between the lines. ) 

" Consistency." 

Jrl EKE is a bit of modem local history ; the narrative is given as a 
preamble to the mention of a point appearing in a Seattle paper, and 
which relates to the maintenance of law and order against the Aiolence of 
mob rule. 

A man residing in Seattle, while returning from his residence to his 
store, in the dusk of the evening, was confronted by two robbers who, 
it is supposed, ordered him to throw up his hands. It is further sup- 
jjosed that instead of obeying their order he drew a i^istol and attemj^ted 
to defend himself, when they shot him down. Never were villains more 
hunted. Late in the night two unknown men were found ajDparently 
sleejDing iiuder a lot of hay in a barn [a common thing] and taken to 
jail. That night a -vigilance committee was formed, embracing many of 
the leading citizens, and so powerful in all resj^ects that the great arm 
of the law was paralyzed, and here was but one man in the community 
who had the courage to even siiggest opposition to this young giant of 
mob rule, and that was the Chief Justice, Koger S. Green. He learned 
that two strange men had been arrested ; he was told of the sjieedv or- 
ganization of tliat which to him was the most fearful of all things — a 
vigilance committee. He went to the leading men of the city and 
talked his remonstrance to them, but he might as well have invoked 
the hidden jKiwers of the air or implored the intervention of the waves. 
He sought and ol)tained invitation to be present and sit with the com- 
mitting magistrate at the preUminary hearing which was to be had and 
which took place on the day following the murder. The vigilance com- 
mittee, learning of this, prepared to anticipate any movement that the 
chief justice might make to interfere with the execution of their purijose. 
The hearing was heard in a large hall which was crowded to its utmost 
capacity by members of the vigilance committee delegated to do the 
stern work in hand [against the outside-of-the-gang jjiisoners]. The 
prisoners were brought into court, and the chief justice sat at the side 
of the examining magistrate. A tall, powerful [mason] with ominous 
mien, stood hke a sentinel behind the chair on which Judge Green was 
sitting. The hearing was concluded, the decision being that the prison- 
ers be held for trial. The latter, in charge of policemen, arose from 

(515) 



516 A Vigilance Committee. 

tlieir seats and were immediately taken possession of by the vigilance 
committee. Judge Green made a raotion as thoiigli to start to liis feet 
and interpose. The sentry at his back drew forth from his coat a 
•white bed-sheet, and, unfolding it, envelojied the head and body of the 
Judge to his knees, and then grasped him about the waist with his arms. 
Here was justice blinded with a vengeance, struggling in vain to be free 
against the unyielding firmness of those powerful arms. Some one cried 
oiit, 'Don't hurt his Honor,' and the reply of the strong man was, ' I don't 
want to huii; him, but I am bound to hold him. ' The great crowd moved 
out of the hall and repaired to the most jjubhc place in the city. There a 
seanthng had been placed high above the pavement with ends resting in 
the forks of the shade trees, and on this seanthng Judge Lynch held his 
high carnival. A detachment of the committee went to the jail and took 
out a third \T.ctim Avho was under trial for shooting a ijolicemau [and who, 
it transpired, was absent from the city at the time] and these three were 
suspended side by side from the scantling. 

When the danger of Judge Green's interference seemed to have jiassed 
away his captor released him, and the captive elbowed his way with almost 
incredible speed through the dense mass of peoi^le who filled the street 
and surrounded the gallows, and with his penknife undertook to cut the 
ropes and rescue the victims of the mob. He was struck over the head 
with a cane by a prominent [masonic] citizen, and another prominent citi- 
zen deterred him from i)roceediug further by the mild jsersuasive of a re- 
volver at his head. So his Honor [the only anti-Mason Judge in the terri- 
tory] , open hke every poor human being to conviction by argument such 
as that, hied himself in sorrow away, while the black crime of treason and 
murder triumjilied over justice and law, and an ineffaceable stain of infamy 
was put upon that community. 

We will now be able to understand the recent remarks of a Seattle 
man, who makes a long argument in favor of peace and obedience to law, 
earnestly deprecates violence and mob rule [against masons] and suggests 
that the seanthng ought to be a jjerpetual reminder that Seattle is an un- 
safe i)lace for law breakers. [If they be out.side of the gang.] 

Oh, consistency, thou art a jewel ! "' 

* * 

* 

"For some weeks j^ast an objectionable class of persons has been 
flocking into Seattle." [They hved by their wits — gambling, stealing, etc., 
and those of them who were outside of the gang were therefore not toler- 
ated. There were many, however, whose only crime was their pnriertii, 
having abeady been shorn, so the gang had no further use for them ; in- 
deed, they were now in their Avay. So they were falsely accused, and the a 
driven out to make room for more game. ] 

"The Chief of Police and his httle corps of aids have done all they 
could to keej) this class within bounds, and get rid of them as rapidly as 
l)os8ible. When arrested, they always had money to fee some shyster 



I 



A Vigilance Commiti^ee. 517 

[masonicj lawyer, who would help them out and post them how to evade 
the law iu future [hke members of the gang, but with them it is all right. 
And here is a sample of the " legal fi-aternity " that the Governor would 
foster with the jjeople's money. J 

Last night, when one of the persons, who had been notified to leave, 
openly jiubUshed a card in an evening jjaper, saying, "I take this means 
of stating that I will not leave Seattle mei-ely to suit the pleasure of a cer- 
tain individual," [who had perhaps robbed him] forbearance ceased to be 
a virtue. [Indeed !] The Chief of PoHce apj^ointed twenty specials for a 
week, and the Committee of Safety also came together [in the dark] and 
resolved to sustain the Chief of Pohce in whatever he undertook. The 
committee consists of over two hundred and fifty [masonic lawless] men, 
and who will carry out to the letter anything they [as secret consj^irators 
against the Government] undertake. It was resolved, before harsher means 
were adopted, to serve a notice upon all suspicious or objectionable charac- 
ters [except masons, etc.] to leave town on or before this evening, with a 
caution not to return. In case all i^ersons receiving this notice comjilv, no 
harsher measure will be used ; but anyone failing to conii^ly does so at his 
peril." 

"It has been rumored that a brother of Payne, who was hung by the 
committee [and who, it is believed, was innocent] is here, and has been 
making threats against the city and its [masonic] j^eople. To him we say, 
' Leave this place as soon as possible, for if you attemjjt to avenge the 
hanging [murder] of youi- brother, the same rope that launched him into 
eternity is ready to do the same for you, and never let that fact escajje 
your memory for one moment." 

"The Chief of PoHce, with ten deputy city marshals, took a walk 
through the streets last night, and notified as many of the above men- 
tioned characters as they could find to quit the town without delay. The 
Chief has a list of those whose iirosence is not desired longer by this com- 
munity, and before noon to-day they will all receive notice to leave, and 
well will it be for those who stand not ujjon the order of their going, but 
goat once." [Many of these had been induced to immigrate here by 
flaming immigration pamphlets of the gang, and were now fleeced and 
thus driven out, -with no Governor or troojis or martial law to protect 
them !] 

* * 

" A letter from Portland informs us that it was thought over there 
that our people were ashamed of their conduct last Thursday night, and 
that the news was accordingly suppressed. SuiJi:)ress it ! We were jjroud 
of the town and its brave and prompt citizens [a vigilance committee]. 
Business was suspended in a moment, and every man stejjped out pre- 
IDared to do or die to save his property and his neighbor's. [But for out- 
siders to do this against the gang, is held by the courts and Governors to 
be a heinous crime. ] 



518 A Vigilance Commitiee. 

The villains quailed in a moment, and slunk out of sight [they not 
having a seci'et organization and prostituted courts to jjrotec't them] while 
the committee of safety took possession of the town. 

The acts of the 18th of January were by no means taken Avith so in- 
telligent and determined a purpose. They worked all night and they 
hustled off dozens of the worst characters in town [that were outside of 
the gang] before breakfast. Suppress the reports ! It was the general 
■\\ ish that they be spread all over the country, that blacklegs [outside of 
the gang] might be confirmed in the knowledge that Seattle is no place 
for them." 



"The scantling used in the hanging of three bad men [outside of the 
gang] last January is still in place, ready for use, and if cause is given 
other men will dangle under it on short notice. Let blacklegs [outside of 
the gang] take warning." 

[It was and is the general custom of the towns of the country to thus 
drive out "objectionable" citizens, against whom there is no proof of 
crime, (and who are frequently only fleeced ^dctims of the gang) and who 
are not joined to secret brotherhoods, thus having no influence at court. 

A.ud Chief Justice Green in an address to a grand jury said this:] 

' ' There are among us, and elsewhere tlwoughout the United States, a 
variety of societies and combinations of persons. But as jjersons may 
combine for a lawful, so they may — and unhappily do — for unlawful piu-- 
poses. A combination to accomphsli au unlawful jsurpose, or a lawful 
pur})ose by unlawfiil means, is called a consj^iracy, and if it jDroceeds a 
single stej) in furtherance of its end, it desen^es to be at once opposed ener- 
getically by all who love the law and desire jjeace. 

The combination may take the form of a firmly compacted and care- 
f iilly ordered organization, or it may have the looser coherence of a com- 
mittee, or a mere assemblage. It matters not what form it may take; if 
the persons who compose it are combined for a common and unlawful 
2)urpose, and are acting inpursiiance of that jjui'ijose, there is a conspiracy, 
indictable and i:)unishable. 

Government is for all men indiscinminately. A free government is no 
respecter of persons. It cannot give to one class more rights than to 
others without abridging the rights of those others. 

It cannot allow one class to take to itself more rights than other classes 
without allowing thut class to oppress those others. It cannot allow one class 
to define what rights another class shall have, ■without deserting its govern- 
mental trust and delivering over to the latter class [or brotherhood] to irre- 
dressible tyranny. 

A citizen cannot divide his allegiance and give it partly to his government 
u)td partly to some society, or league, or committee, whose aims are in any 
purticidar hostile to or at variance iHlh the authority of the r/oveivnnent. 

Nor can he be acting the part of a good citizen, if he is endeavoring 



A Vigilance Committee. 519 

by combinatiou and force to accomplish what the commonwealth will .not 
lend the power of its arm to him to do. 

Still less can he be a good citizen, if by like means he is trying to do 
what the government is pledged to ojjpose. 

Such condtict on his part carried into overt act of armed violence of 
any kind, is more than couspu'acy, it is insurrection and treason. 

To attempt to deiJiive a man of his 'life ' by force or fright, [or fraud] 
is manifestly an unlawful act. 

Quite as manifestly unlawful is it, to try by such means to take a\\ay 
his 'Hberty.' 

And what shall I say of an attempt against his 'pui-suit of happiness?' 

Is it not equally unlawful to restrain him, by such means, in that pur- 
suit '? Clearly it is. Very essential to the hai^piness of a human being is 
the hberty to see and sjjeak to and deal with his fellow-men, to employ 
and be employed, to give and receive mutual attention and kindnesses, 
and to form and cultivate the ties of friendshij) and affection. 

Any combination to deny to any human being these sources of happi- 
ness, or any of them, is unlawful. 

Wlio the jjerson or persons may be, whose life, liberty or pursuit of 
happiness is thus interfered with, matters not. 

He may be a laboring man or he may be an idler; he may be rich or 
he may be poor. It makes no difference. 

There [is supposed to be] one law for all, and that which is unlawful 
as against one, is unlawful as against any. 

Ladies and gentlemen, lawlessness let alone, is an encroaching horror." 

[Such was ihe custom oi "lawlessness," " insun*ection " and "treason" 
against white citizens outside of the gang, because they were " objection- 
able " to another class, many of whom were gilded wholesale robbers and 
thieves and a far greater curse to good people and homes, than those they 
would lynch or drive away. 

Yet their victims had no Governor, troops or courts to j^rotect them, 
or i^ress to howl the "lawless traitors" down. 

The Chinese were also objectionable to the peoi^le. They were really 
a blistering curse against the prosperity and dignity of the common people. 

John Brown started the fight and advanced against slavery. He was 
howled down, stigmatized and hung for it. Others took up his fight, and 
with others to do the fighting, hajjpened to succeed and were glorified. 

Dennis Kerney started the agitation against the Chinese and advanced 
the cause. He was howled down, stigmatized and imprisoned for it by the 
Masons, who were against him and his cause. But the people were with 
him at heart and applied their ballots to the cause. 

Seeing this, Masons put on Kerney's old shoes, sung Kemey's war 
songs to the biggest crowd, and rode into office. 

Where they betrayed and tricked the ijeople with flawed laws and 



)20 A Vigilance Committee. 



prostituted courts to j^rotect their brethren, instead of to remove the 

Chinese curse, as they were pledged and sworn to do.] 

* * 

* 

'■'■Dong Ting Chung, the headmaster of the Chinese Free Masons and 
chief of the highbinders of British Cobnnhin," says the Victoria Cofo» /.< "was 
buried on the 11th, inst., with all the ceremoniea due his rank, from the 
Masonic hall. " 

* 

"It seems strange that the law makers are unable to frame a law 
which will eflfectually exclude the Chinese. Each bill that has been passed 
by Congress with this end in -sdew, has proved to be miserably defective. 
No sooner has Congress adjourned than the Chinese and his [Masonic] 
American friends ' discover ' innumerable rents in the law, throiagh which 
the unwelcome immigrant can enter the country almost without molesta- 
tion. The last anti-Chinese law was thought [by outsiders] to be almost 
perfect, but time has shown that it is little, if any, better than the futile 
enactment which jireceded it. 

If a more effective law is not framed before long, the people will be- 
heve that the Senators and Bepreseutatives are fooling them, and that the 
laws are passed with the intention rather of heljnng the Chinese in, than 
keeping them out." 

[The consequence of wliich was that:] "There are plenty of appHca- 
tions to labor at $15 per month for the next six months. No excuse now 
for hiidng Chinamen because they are cheap." 

[And cases like the following :] 

"The Sixth Victim. 

Death of Mr. Mineer, husband of the woman who burned heiself and child^ren. 

Extra-ordinary sad case of pove^'ty. 

Olympia, Dec. 19th, 1885. The recent sad event which occurred near 
this place [right under the Governor's nose], by which a mother and her 
four cliildren were hurried into eternity, was rendered still more sad when 
it was learned that the husband, Mr. Mineer, who escaped through the 
window ANith his little daughter, had been so badly biu-ned from the waist 
down that his death, which took place the morning after the fire, was but 
a relief from intense suffering. The httle giii may recover, but it is doubt- 
ful, and thus a whole family will be completely annihilated through the 
insanity of the poor mother, who had for some time been despondent over 
financial difficulties, under the severe pressure of wliich her mind ultimately 
gave Avay. 

It seems the poor woman has for some time been working herself al- 
most to death to keep her family from suffering and want. And her hus- 
band, who has been engaged in fanning in a small way, was unable, owing 
to Chinese competition, to make his business pay. Seeing nothing before 
them but starvation, Avant, or the almshouse, the unfortunate [victim of 
Masonr)'], seeing life itself and all its pleasures slipping from her grasp. 



A Vigilance CoMjnTTEE. 521 

conceived the idea that by destroying the entire family with a blow, she 
would save them from a move wretched fate. Having made every pre- 
paration for the sad event, after saturating the house with coal oil, she 
finally concluded the dreadful work by throwing the Kerosene over her 
husband's clothes, thus destroying every chance of saving him from a fiery 
death. But little of the remains of the children could be found after the 
fire, and the woman's head was comjiletely consumed." 

* * 

* 

"The country is overrun with idle men in search of work, but few 
succeed in obtaining jobs, and they do not know what to do. Some re- 
ceive employment at a dollar a day; others wander over the country, pack- 
ing then* blankets and asking for something to eat when hungry, as they 
move along. Be kind to such men, for they are not professional tramps, 
but poor, deluded laborers, who came a great distance to seek honest toil, 
but found it not. 

How cheerless such men's prosjDCcts ! " 

[The "kindness" accorded such as these was to be stigmatized as 
" vagi-ants," «.tc., &c., and imprisoned and driven out, because they had no 
unshorn fleece and were, therefore, " susi3icious " and "objectionable" 
characters to other men who had been thrown up by accident or raised by 
their own villainy, and who should tremble because of their undivulged 
crimes, unwhijjped of justice. Yet, such as the following article could be 
seen in the press most any day.] 

' ' There were large numbers of arrests, and the ' cooler ' was crowded 
to its utmost capacity. With one or two exceptions vagrancy was the charge, 
and the parties will be summarily sent out of the city and warned not to re- 
turn.''' 

[And there was no Governor, no troops, no courts, no protection 
whatever for these victims, many of whom "could a tale unfold whose 
lightest word would harrow up thy soul."] 

* * 
* 

"I am," says the writer, "a laboring man, and have hard work to 
make a li\'ing for a family, and if the spirit of oppression that is continu- 
ally gi'owing does not stoji, our condition will soon l)e worse than that of 
the laboring men of England. Numerous cases have come up lately in 
this community, where honest laboring men have been swindled out of 
their wages and turned out upon the road to tramp, beg or steal." [There 
being no Governor, no troops, no coiirts, no protection whatever for them, 
in person or property. ] 

"They [the Masons] had no ear for anything but money ! money ! 
money ! It was madness to urge morality — it was ruin to sjieak of law," 



"The Seattle deUnquent tax list is 13 feet long. Poor Seattle, what 
hast thou done ? " [Suffered members of the gang to hold office. ] 



CHAPTER XXX. 

The Taktabic Masonic Hobde vs. Amekican Citizens. — The anti-Chinese 
Congress, etc., etc. — (How to read newspapers intelligently.) 

"A Crisis !" 

i O the thinking man — even to the man who does not think — it is e%d- 
deut that we are upon a momentous crisis. Never in the history of Puget 
Bound has there been a time when it was more clearly the duty of the 
calm to remain calm, of the law-abiding to maintain their respect for law, of 
the passionate to hold their passions in restraint. The air is full of 
rumors, and they all mean that the people will soon have to solve for 
themselves a most important problem. 

Our towns are full of idle men, of men who are willing and anxious to 
work at any wages, however low. All they demand is a bare li\ing for 
themselves and families. This they must have." 

[The Chinese and American masons in conjunction had prostituted 
the Government and courts, so as to nuUify the laws excluding the Chinese 
from the country ; this so inflamed the people, many of whom were in sore 
distress ou account of the same, that they determined to rectify such in- 
trigtiing deeds of darkness, and -vdrtually enforce the laws against them. 

It being customary to kill, rob and drive out poor American citizens 
with impunity, though being lawfully where they were, only because 
they were "objectionable," why then should these objectionable 
masons, who despise and discard and prostitute our Government, set up 
one of their own m our very midst — lurking in the dark — to which they 
owe their allegiance; are here in violation of law, without honesty or 
virtue, a swarm of masonic vermin over-creeping the land, gaining by 
intrigue and masonry what their ancestors did over the Roman Empire by 
force of arms. Why then should they have any more influence, power 
and protection, with and from our Government, than full-fledged Ameri- 
can citizens ?] 

"The Anti-Chinese Congress 

assembled at Seattle to consider the best method to rid the Puget Sound 
coixntry of the Chinese curse. There was a very large attendance, 
nearly all principal points on the Sound being fully represented. 

Mayor Weisback, of Tacoma, was chosen Chairman. He considered 
the question as of the highest importance to the whole nation as well as 
to this section. There has been nothing since the war so important. 
These Chinamen are not here under authority of law. When the laws 
fail to afford the people protection, the people are in duty bound to 
protect themselves. The people, when united, can accomphsh wonders. 
We started in six months ago, at Tacoma, to fight the Chinamen. We 
legislated against them in our city council, but [their brethren] of San 



The Tautakic Horde. 523 



Francisco have employed [masonicj lawyers to break down my Govern- 
ment and declare our ordinances void. We went to those [masons] who 
rent houses to them and tried to get them to covenant with us that they 
would not I'ent or lease to Chinamen, but they refuse to sign. You curse 
the Chinamen for coming here. They are not to blame. You ought to 
take the men who brought them here by the neck and choke them. In 
this crusade you have the united capital [masons] of the coast against you 
— a hard fight. I have been engaged in the work for years; chains and 
prisons have been my portion, but I believe there is an eternal justice." 

' ' Dr. Taylor referred to the insults heaped uiion the working 
peojale by [masonic] cajsital, and to the hai-dshii)s endured by jjoor 
laboring women on account of Cliinese competition. He advocated 
boycotting all Avho employed Chinamen." 

' ' Mr. Magill said, w'hen he left Tacoma, his constituents had told 
him that if any of their delegates became weak-kneed, or faltered, to 
telegraph the fact, and they woidd never be allowed to land." 

" G. Venerable Smith si:)oke of the anti-Chinese crusade in Calif oruia. 
and the obstacles which had been thrown in the Avay of any legal measures 
owing to the interpretation by the [masonic] courts and the [masonic] 
lawyers." 

"The committee presented, and the meeting unanimously adopted 
the following : 

Preamble (tnd Resolutions. 

"The citizens of Western Washington Territory in convention assem 
bled, for the jKirpose of devising, ways and means to rid our Territory from 
the jaresence of the Chinese, declare the following jiriucijiles and resolu- 
tions as our own sentiments : 

"It is the duty of our citizens to organize themselves for the expul- 
sion of and protection against the invasion and the presence of elements 
foreign to the principles of the laws of existence, of self-protection, of 
mutual good government and its aims and results, our individual and col- 
lective welfare and happiness. 

" Life's highest gain is individual hapjiiness, the duty of triie and 
just government, is to promote the same, to create, disj^ense and promote 
the greatest good to the greatest number. Where governments are formed 
they are and ought to be a mutiial contract for equal rights, equal burdens 
and equal justice to all, thereby promoting the welfare and hapi)inoss of 
all its members. No government can be just where elements are permitted 
to exist, which, by their nature, are not fully responsible to all duties of 
citizenship, and whose jiroductions flow not in a collective fund to enrich 
the commonwealth with their jiroductiveness, and assist the same with 
their full, true, and loyal siipport. The princii^les are most grossly vio- 
lated when elements are introduced in the body politic, which, while they 
share the full rights, benefits and protection of the government with 
the rest of the citizens, are [as masons] not in sympathy and accord with 



524 A Crisis. 

the same. They become factors in our institutions, conductive of condi- 
tions which are positively and absolutely in every respect in direct oppo- 
sition with every jjrinciple of true Republican Democratic Government, 
are in opposition with every law of political economy, and are opposed to 
our homes, families, health, decency and moraUty. 

" Resolved, That the present excited state of the people on this coast, 
and the depressed conditions of industries and commerce, are due to and 
directly traceable to the persistent refusal of Congress to legislate in the 
interests of the people. 

" Resolved, That it is our firm and steadfast resolution to rid our Terri- 
tory, and if possible the United States, from the presence of Chinese slave 
labor. 

" Resohed, That to accomplish this end we ask all citizens to discharge 
all Chinese in their employ. 

"Resolved, That ou the return of the delegates to their respective 
localities, they shall call mass meetings, to be held October 3, 1885, for 
the pui-pose of appointing committees to notify the Chinese to leave on or 
before November 1, 1885. [White American citizens were generally given 
only a few hours or even minutes. ] These delegates shall call mass meet- 
ings of the citizens to hear the reports of said committee on November 6, 
1885." 

■x- * 

•X- 

"Seattle, October 16th, 1885. 

Ml-. Editor : — We, the citizens of Seattle, Avish to get a hearing in 
some way in reference to the Chinese question, as it is impossible to do so in 
the papers pubhshed in Seattle, they being i)ubhshed in the interests of a 
few wealthy [masons] who have houses and gardens to rent to Chinamen. 
There are -probably not more than fifty persons in Seattle (of 7,000 or 
8,000 inhabitants] who wish the Chinese to remain here and on the Sound. 
Those fifty are [masons] who have shanties and gardens to rent to China- 
men. 

Every meeting held and every speech made by the Anti-Chinese 
peojile here is ridiculed and called incendiary and the like by the papers 
of Seattle. 

I ask if we are not all united in the desire to be rid of the Chinamen '? 
I ask if a few aristocrats and lovers [masonic brothers] of Chinamen are 
going to dictate to the people what they shall do ? As this movement is 
for the universal good of the people, I ask why not all join in the good 
work? H. B. Ktddeb." 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

'Anti-Chinese." — "A great demonstration." — The largest torch-light pro- 
cession ever seen in the Territory. — An enthusiastic meeting. — Sjyeeches 
and Resolutions. — (How to read the press "between the lines.") 



aT 

J . J. KNOFF was elected secretary and Mrs. Kenworthy vice-president. 

The lady said: 'I thank you for the honor and ho^jel shall never disgi-ace 
the position. I shall always stand by the workingman. Abraham Lincoln 
said, ' Keep near the workingman, and you will always be right. ' 

J. A. Comerf ord said : ' When I look about at this vast concourse of 
l^eople which, by the permission of Governor [Mason] and the deputy 
sheriffs, have met together, when I see such an array of ladies and gentle- 
men and hear the generous applause, I reahze that this is more than an 
ordinary occasion. In the disjiatches we read, your dude milk and 
water Governor said, ' the better class of peojjle were in favor of the Chinese 
remaining. ' I ask the Governor by what standard he judges this peoi^le. 
ril tell Governor [^Mason^ that he lies from his teeth to his heart, wheti he calls 
the \Masonic^ thieves 'who stole our timber and coal layids the better class of 
our citizens. There has not even been a queue on one of theii' heads twist- 
ed, and yet Governor [Mason] talks' of quartering trooj^s in our midst. If 
I should meet a man with a musket standing around, to keep my con- 
science, I would kill him, if my steel would reach his heart. In Tacoma 
we had 800 Chinamen. We told them to go. We now have about 100, 
who would go but for a gagging [Masonic] corporation, which tells them 
to stay. 

The two per cent, sharjis who have robbed the i^eoijle of their coal 
and timber lands, will learn to their sorrow that this is not riot, but a re- 
volution. Laws never enforce themselves. I'll tell Governor [Mason], if 
he is honest he will arm his dejiuties and make a coast guard to keep the 
Cliinamen out. We have no deputies in Tacoma; the man who would ac- 
cept such a position would be a marked man. ' 

P. P. Good said : ' I would Uke to know, if I am one who does not be- 
long to the respectable citizens of Wasltington Territory. I would like to 
know if Governor [Mason] could get as large a class of followers as we 
have to-night ' 

The following resolutions were read and adapted : 

' The Chinese bring with them habits and customs the most vicious 
and demoralizing. They [like their American brethren] are scornful of 
our laws and institutions. They [like other Masons] have their own gov- 
ernments, tribunals and punishments within our own, securely separated 
and iH-otected from our own, as if in the interior of China, and are utterly 

(525) 



526 A Great Demonstration. 



unfitted for American citizenship. They creep in by fraud, evasion and 
cunning. In vain have the people protested, murmured and complained 
of the -weakness of the treaty, the laAvs and the efforts to exclude them. 
In vain have they cried against this calamitous, this humihating e\-il. 
Therefore, resolved, that to save ourselves from this blighting e\il, it is 
necessary that more prompt and vigorous measures than have heretofore 
been exercised, should be used. That public sentiment, having lost faith 
in all other methods, is aroused to the firm determination of using its 
own forces and the social influences under its control to that end; and be- 
heving that ■when the purpose of a free j^eople is formed, and intensified 
by disapi^ointment and betrayals in its reliance upon usual methods, and 
in the face of great danger and humihation, as in the ijresent case^ that 
such a public sentiment is irresistible, and that, if -wisely directed and 
shaped by agitation, organization and discussion, it -will manifest and en- 
force the highest expression of la-w by a free peoj^le, to the laudable end 
of excluding the Mongolian curse from the land.' " 

[At a subsequent big meeting the following was read and adopted:] 

" Whereas, about four years ago, certain of our leading citizens, busi- 
ness men and others, forcibly took from the oflfieers of the law and from 
the county jail three jjersons charged Avith crime and, Avithout trial and 
against law, summarily executed them, and, according to the letter of the 
law, said citizens, business men and other persons committed deliberate 
and premeditated murder, and set at defiance the law of the land; and 

Wliereas, such acts have gone without prosecution, and although 
several Grand Juries were expressly instructed to find indictments against 
the guilty parties in such acts of murder, no indictment was ever found 
thereon, although there had been no such laxity in the administration of 
justice that should then justify such extreme measures under the excuse 
of a last resort, but not now wishmg to palliate the necessity or justice of 
such acts on the part of those who thus took the law in their own hands, 
we are opposed to vuiling fish of one set of citizens and fowl of another. 

Resolved, that the citizens of Tacoma, who removed the Chinese from 
their city by force, which was characterized by no violence or uncivihzed 
act, were moved by a gi-eater jjublic necessity and pubHc indignation than 
sustained the peojde of Seattle in taking the lives of their victims, and 
that said latter necessity and public indignation was founded more in the 
laxity of the administration of the laAV, the otherwise irremediable public 
injuries of a worse character than was charged against the Seattle victims, 
as being or leading to multiplication of such acts so charged, and after the 
peojile of Tacoma, in common with others throughout the coast, have been 
more forbearing under greater Avrongs and oppressions of long suflfering, 
by the neglect of the Government and its non-protection of its own citizens, 
without other hope of relief . 

Resolved, that it is the almost unanimous oiiinion of jaubhc sentiment 
on the Pacific Coast, where the facts and circumstances are known and 



A Great Demonstration. 527 

understood, that the citizens of Tacoma who are indicted for removing the 
Chinese from that city, have effected great public good in the only effect- 
ual manner; we, in common with the mass of citizens on this coast, believe 
that the jji-osecution of said indictments will effect no good — would be an 
injustice to the defendants, Avhilst the Seattle lynchers go unprosecuted, 
and we, therefore, request that either suits for indictments be dismissed, 
or with such proposed prosecution the Seattle lynchers be also prosecuted, 
.so that justice without disa'iminntion irill be meted out by the so-called impart i(d 
administ)'ator of justice under a free govei-nmeiit. 

Resolved further, that the Uniteel States attorney should wash his 
hands of the charges against him in taking part in the execution of the 
three men in Seattle, before he undertakes to prosecute the Tacoma 
citizens." 

"Mrs. M. A. Kenivorthi/ [among others] was called. She was truly 
surprised when elected on the committee, but never desired to stand back 
when duty to her country demanded her services. 

' I fear these Chinamen will be protected by men and cause much 
trouble. This is a serious matter and cannot be accomplished in a day. 
These Chinese are in our families, they take the work from our gii-ls. Did 
you ever read the apj^eal of the working women of San Francisco, and 
hear the prayers of the poor, starving creatures who are trying to work at 
Chinamen's wages and support their families ? Do you wonder that these 
women are driven to desperation and ruin ? I Avould do anything on 
earth, before I would see my cliildren starve. I would take my pistol and 
shoot mv wav through.'" 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

The Tacoma TKOTJBLE a?i(^ exodus. — ''Straightforward statement signed hjj 
prominent citizens." — [Which wdll apply as well to the exodus of the 
Chinese at Seattle.] 

1 NASMUCH as many, acting on misinformation or actuated by male- 
volence, have taken it in hand to assiduously misrepresent the facts con- 
cerning the exodus of the Chinese from Tacoma, on the 3d of November, 
1885, it IS deemed advisable to place the facts as they exist before the 
pubHc. There was no insurrection, no mob seized the reins of govern- 
ment or attempted to control the administration of the law, there was 
no violence offered to the person, or damage done to the property of a 
single Chinamen, the peojile did not force open the doors or seize ujjon 
or destroy the effects of the Chinamen, there was not a club, ax, knife, 
gim, pistol or weapon seen or known to have been in the j^ossession of 
any of the parties who waited upon the Chinamen, their goods were 
not thrown into the street, they were not driven out to an ojDen prairie, 
or left without shelter, there was not a Chinaman that died or that was 
struck, not a single drop of Chinese blood was shed, not a single China- 
man could show a bruise received from a white man There was 

no noise or excitement; no harsh or cruel treatment was manifested 
toward the inti'uding people. Many of them bade their acquaintances 
on the committee and in the crowd a friendly good-bye. So quiet was 
it that many of the citizens did not know of the exodus until they read 
of it in the city jjapers. During the day there Avas but one man seen 
that was under the influence of liquor, and he was closely guarded. 

On the morning of November 3d, the citizens assembled, organized 
themselves into a committee and started for the various Chinese dens, 
where the Committee of Fifteen, formally appointed by the pubhc, ap- 
peared and notified the inmates thereof that the time allotted for their 
departure had arrived, and that the committee would aid them if they 
wished to leave the city. The Chinamen, with few exceptions, began im- 
mediately to pack their goods. A guard was placed over their ji laces to 
see that no one molested them. Teams were furnished them without cost, 
and their goods were transjjorted to the nearest depot outside of the city. 
A committee of citizens went with them and procured shelter for them for 
the night. Food in abundance was sent to them by the citizens. Every 
kindness that the circumstances would permit of was shown them by all, 
The social necessity that required their dejjarture Avas not allowed to in- 
terfere Avith the dictates of humanity. To CA'ery Chinaman whose business 
was such that he could not go, time was given. To those to Avhom any one 
was indebted, every assistance that was jjossible was given, to collect or get 
their accounts secured. Some five weeks previous to their departure, a 

(528) 



< 



The Tacoma Exodus. 529 



peaceable solution of the question was sought, and agreement was made to 
pay the Chinamen for their immovables. They agreed to accept S2,500 
and depart, but when the final arrangements were being completed, they 
took a sudden change and refused to negotiate further, saying, that if 
their ijroi^erty was destroyed they could get damages from the United 
States Government." 

[And I noticed that September 24, 1888, a masonic senator "offered 
an amendment appropriating $276,000! for indemnity for outrages on 
Chinese in the Territories; agreed to, the bill was then passed." 

But the outraged white citizens have no recourse ; their ' ' truth and 
justice is buried, and fraud and guile succeed."] 

" The Chinese houses in Tacoma were all the abodes of social sins, 
opium dens and gambling holes. The burnt district consisted of a scant 
half acre on the tide flats; In this small space, in low, compact huts, with 
secret passage-ways in every direction, lived over 400 Chinamen, 
with fifty-two hogs, and chickens and ducks unnumbered. Here were 
stores, washhouses and restaurants ; here were many women, and only one 
of whom had the dignity of being a wife. The origin of the fire in China- 
town is unknown. Chinamen stated to various persons that they did not 
care for their property, for if it was destroyed the [masonic] Chinese 
Consul at Washington would make the Government pay them for it. That 
the United States Government would reimburse them for whatever was 
lost was a universal beUef among them. The fire occun-ed two days sub- 
sequent to their departure. Their goods and effects were nearly all gone; 
the remnants were ready to leave on the morning train. The old shells 
and dens were not worth $1,000, and the place where they stood was held 
on sufferance. The health officer had inspected the place and pronounced 
it the ^ilest spot he had ever examined used as a human habitation. 

The parties indicted are all men of property, character, and social 
worth. Of them three are merchants, three journahsts, two retail butchers, 
six carpenters and builders, three blacksmiths, one di'aughtsman, two 
plumbers, one photographer, one brickmason, one shoe manufacturer, one 
farmer, one moulder, one boat builder, one civil engineer, and one la-\\'yer. 
They include the Mayor of Tacoma, two of the city council, the Probate 
Judge of Pierce county, the Chief of the Fii-e Dei3artment, and the Presi- 
dent of the Young Men's Chi-istian Association. All but two have families, 
and represent sixty -four children and eleven grandchildren. All of them 
are citizens, sixteen native-bom. Eleven served in the United States 
army during the late war. These men simply carried out the wishes of 
nine-tenths of the jseople of Tacoma. 

[No Chinese have since resided in Tacoma, which would have been 
the case with Seattle and the other places, but for the discrimination in 
favor of the Chinese over native citizens by masonic officials — their breth- 
ren. Let no such men be trusted. ] 
34 



CHAPTER XXXIIl. 

Story of the Captain of the Queen as to the Seattle exodus. — 97 Chinamen in 
court. — " The Govermnent is strong and unll protect the Masons." 

i HE captain said, that "the first intimation he had of any disorder in 
Seattle was aboiit 7 o'clock on Sunday morning, when wagona and carts 
and everything that would carry freight came rumbhng down to the wharf, 
accompanied by a few Chinese attendants, and at once proceeded to un- 
load. Soon after the Captain started up-town, and on his way met a large 
crowd of citizens, who accosted him with the remark that 'the Chinese 
must go, and on his steamer, too. ' 

At that time the uprising element comprised at least 3000 people, and 
the entire city seemed to be subject to their control. There were no threats 
to speak of, nor tendency toward mob violence — simply a determined up- 
rising that might result in something serious, if its purpose was impeded. 

That it was the general desire of the citizens of Seattle, that the 
Chinese should go, and that the entire city was in sympathy with the up- 
rising was apparent from the fact that as soon as he announced that none 
could go on his steamer unless his fare was paid, money began to accumu- 
late in the hands of a certain committee, and in less than fifteen minutes 
the fares of 171 Chinese had been jsaid, the money obviously coming from 
the purses of the wealthier classes. 

The 'Queen' did not sail at her appointed time. On Monday the first 
lot of Chinese who were driven to the dock, 87 in. number, were demanded 
on a writ of habeas corpus to ajjpear in court and state whether or not 
they were willing to go. [They having influence at court that citizens 
have not.] Seventy-one rephed affirmatively and were returned, and 
afterwards 100 more were taken on board, although in no instance until 
each had acknowledged that it was his desire to leave. Could 
have taken a large number in addition, had it not been that he was re- 
stricted by law as to the number of steerage passengers. 

Those who were left were coralled with their baggage in a large ware- 
house on the dock. As long as he remained in the towTi, there was no 
violence whatever, only the intense determination, which seemed to in- 
crease with each hour and was attended with great excitement. Just a 
short time after he sailed out of the harbor, however, he he^rd the crack 
of rifles, and knew then that the worst had come." 

[How the Government will protect Masonic Chinamen, when even 
home-building American citizens cannot even get a hearing against the 
gang.] 

"All the Chinese on board the ship were escorted to the court-house 
by the sheriff and his posse. The Chinese in the warehouse also came 
along, but they remained outside the building during the trial. [Which 

(530) 



The Seattle Exodus. 531 



proved that they needed no protection from violence in the streets.^ United 
States prosecuting attoruev ajJiJeared for the Chinamen. 

After getting the names of the 97 Chinamen, the Judge had Lue King 
sworn in as interpreter [what does a Chinese Mason or highbinder care for 
an oath ?] and through him spoke as follows : 

' Lue King tell them that the court has been told that they are con- 
fined on board the steamshii) 'Queen of the Pacific' against their will. The 
court is willing, if they desire, that they shall go as passengers, but no 
man or set of men has a right to compel them to go. So, if they "^ish ta 
stay, they must let the court know it now. I wiU have the name of each 
man called sei^arately, and let him tell whether he wants to go or stay. 
Tell them, not to be afraid to speak -what is in their hearts. The Govern- 
ment is strong and "will protect them. Tell them, that as theu* names are 
called all those "who are "willing to keep theii* tickets and go to Cahfomia 
must express a "wiUingness to do so, and all "who "want to give up their 
tickets and stay here must say so. ' 

Sixteen expressed a desire to stay, and 71 a wTllingness to go. They 
were all escorted back to the wharf, and those who had expressed a will- 
ingness to go were placed upon the ship. A great many of those "whose 
baggage was on the wharf went back to the dock and expressed a willing- 
ness to go, pro\dded transportation was fui-nished them." 

[Xative citizens, when "objectionable," have to get out the best way 
they can, and no fooHshness.] 

* 
"About 10 o'clock a report came to the ears of Sheiiff [Mason], that 
the Shore Line train -was to be captured and the Chinamen left on the 
Ocean Dock were to be i3laced on it and taken to Tacoma. A sufiicient 
sum of money had been raised to buy tickets on the cars to Tacoma. The 
Sheriff notified the R. R. Company that it would be held resi^onsible for 
any damages resulting from the carrying off of the Chinese [Masons] unlaw- 
fully and against their "will, [when hundi'eds of white men had been driven 
out 'unlawfully and against their will,'] and to avoid any trouble that 
might gi-ow out of 'such an act.' And to prevent the train being seized, 
they placed on the engine a doiible crew and started the train out ahead of 
time. A shoi-t time before the train left (1.30 o'clock Monday morning), 
the Sheriff detailed a posse of deputies to guard the Ocean Dock, and not 
allow any one to pass on or off the wharf duiing the night "without a 
special permit. The Chinamen who were in the "warehouse, about 215 
sti'ong, spread their blankets and stretched out for the night, after their 
suiiper, furnished by those in charge of them." 

* * 

* 

[Meanwhile the Governor, who -was in town and opposing the exodus, 
sent the follo^\"ing disjjatch to Washington:] 

"Immense mob forcing Chinese to leave Seattle. Civil authorities 
aiTuing posse comitatus to protect them. Serious conflict probable. I re- 



532 The Seattle Exodus. 



spectfully request that United States troops be immediately sent to 
Seattle." 

[There was no conflict at Tacoma, and there was no danger of any 
conflict here, unless done by the "White Chinamen," so as to justify the 
call for troops and thus ijrevent the exodus of their brethren, and also put 
coin in their pockets, as will be seen further on. 

A lot of deputy sheriffs and dejiuty marshals and militia had been 
sworn in/or to conflict, and a lot of the leading citizens, including a lady, 
arrested and jailed on a charge of riot, though never convicted. 

StiU the people had not been aggravated to a conflict, and without a 
"conflict" or troops, the Chinese, with the exception of six, were to be 

gone by the next boat.] 

* * 

* 

' ' The captain came to the office and stated that he had 196 on board, 
or all that he was allowed by law to carry with the other passengers. The 
matter was talked over between the representatives of the anti-Chinese 
movement and Sheriff [Mason] and some of his aids, and it was mutually 
agreed between them that the Chinamen still on the wharf, all of whom, 
with the exception of six, liad expressed a %oilUngness to go, but were unable 
to leave by the ' Queen, ' should be allowed to remain in town until the 
going out of the 'Elder,' unless they saw fit to leave sooner." 

"The 'Queen' cast off her lines, and the jJeople on the wharf shook 
hands and congi'atulated each other over what they supjiosed was a hapi^y 
ending of the very exciting and unpleasant controversy which had been 
going on for so long. [Yet without any ' conflict. '] 

The Chinaman on the wharf, with the exception of the few who want- 
ed to remain, Avere much disapjaointed when the steamer left without 
them, and it was with reluctance that they picked up their baggage to re- 
turn to their houses." 



1 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

"Home Guards " fibe into the crowd. — Five men wounded. — The City 
UNDER Martial Law, with Govei-nor [Mason'] hi command." — (The 
only case of the kind in the history of the United States.) 

He drives out White Citizens and protects Chinese Masons. 

(How to read " between the lines.") 

" You rule with all-opi^ressive Laud, 
Thy hideous soul, Oh ! fiend accurs'd, 
Can there allay its bloody thii'st. " 

1^ i HE Chinese needed no escort or protection from violence, when they 
went from the wharf to the Court House and returned. And certainly 
they needed none now in going to their houses, as was agreed upon. 

They had perhajDS never been more secure from violence than now, 
but a " conflict" must be had, or they would soon all be gone. 

So, as if with a flaming desire for vengeance, at such a j^rospect, a fire- 
brand — even a lot of detested armed deputies and militia — went to escort- 
ing and parading the Chinamen in a body through the streets, "wdth an air 
of -s-ictory and bravado, and being ridiculed and rebuked by citizens 
(who were not aware of the agreement at the wharf) instead of exjjlain- 
ing and disbanding — they undertook to arrest as criminals some of these 
citizens for their rebuke and request for an explanation, and on their 
resisting, shot them do^vTi in cold blood, and one after he was down ; and 
he died. ] 

"The crowd had fallen back, and the streets Avere swej^t by the rifles 
of the military and the deputy sheriffs. The crowd commenced to gather 
again after the wounded had been removed, and in a few minutes there 
were thousands of men in the street on either side of the 'authorities.' 

[Who, though held to the spot, concluded it to be unnecessary to 
attempt any more such an-ests ; the agreement at the wharf was now ex- 
plained, and the military companies and the dejjuty sheriff's struck out for 
the court house, while the Chinamen proceeded to their houses unmo- 
lested. 

The citizens wanted to lynch the masons who did the shooting, but on 
the advice of the leading anti-Chinese agitators they abstained from any 
violence, and peaceably dispersed to their homes, being assured that the 
criminals would get justice by the courts.] 

"So a warrant was sworn out against those who did the shooting, 
charging them with murder. 

But the Judge declared that ' those men were officers of his court and 
not subject to arrest.'' 

He further stated ' that 

(533) 



534 Martial Law on Puget Sound. 

Martial La w 
had been declared, and that civil process was no longer binding,' where- 
upon the constable returned his warrant unserved." 
[" The trail of the serpent was over them all."] 

* * 
* 

Shortly after the shooting Governor [Mason] issued the following: 
" Prodaviatinn of Martial Law." 

" W7iei'eas, Heretofore in consequence of an inflamed condition of 
the public mind in Seattle, and grave disturbance of the pubhc iieace 
therein, I [chief mason] issued my proclamation warning all persons to 
desist from breaches of the peace, and peacefully to retui-n to their 
homes, except such as were disposed to assist the sheriff [mason] and 
the other duly constituted authorities in maintaining law and order, and 
requesting all persons who were disposed to assist in maintaining order 
[the most influential of those doing so were arrested] to enroll them- 
selves under the sheriff [mason] immediately for that purpose, and 

IVJiereas, Said proclamation has proven ineffectual to quiet the pub- 
hc mind and jjreserve the peace, and 

lVJie7'eas, Numerous breaches of the peace have occurred [and the 
most infamous indorsed by the ' duly constituted authorities '] and more 
are thi-eatened, and 

Whei'eas, An msurrection exists in said city of Seattle, by which the 
Hves, liberties and projjerty of citizens of the Territory and sojourners 
within the Territory are endangered, and 

Whereas, The civil authorities have proved jDowerless to suppress 
said insurrection, or prevent such breaches of the peace, and 

Wliereas, the necessity for martial law within said city exists, and it 
is deemed proper that all needful measures should be taken for the pro- 
tection of such citizens and sojourners, and of all officers of the United 
States and of the Tei-ritory in the discharge of their public duties within 
said city. Now, therefore, be it known that I [chief mason] and com- 
mander-in-chief of the military forces of said Territory, do hereby as- 
sume military command of said city, and do hereby order that no jjer- 
son exercise any office or autliority in said city which may be inconsistent 
with the laws and constitution of the United States or the laws of said 
Territory, [and he was to be the Judge against the almost imanimous judg- 
ment of th.e peoplfi] " and / do hereby su8i)end the writ of habeas corpus an^ 
declare martial law within said city. The 8th day of February, 188G." 

[" He makes a solitude and calls it peace."] 

* * 
* 

"I [chief mason] hereby announce the following [brethren] members 
of my staff, who will be respected and obeyed accordingly. " [One of 
whom is a notorious tliiof.] 



Martial Law on Puget Sound. 535 

" MiiiiTARY Headquarters." 

' ' Until further notice all saloons and j^laces where intoxicating hquor 
is sold will be forthwith and permanently closed [though he could swill it 
down himself], and all other places of business shall be and remain 
closed between the hours of 7 P. M. and 6 A. M. each night. All persons 
found on the streets after 7 P. M. and before 5 A. M. without the consent 
in wzitiug of the [masonic] Provost Marshal, will be arrested." 

"By command of the [chief mason]." 

* 

"Three captains [masons] Avill report with their respective comi)anies 

to the Adjutant General at headquarters forthmth." 

* * 

* 

"Captain [Mason], with his command, will report forth'svith for duty 
to Provost Marshal. " [At this writing he is under $10,000 bail as belong- 
ing to a gang of opium smugglers, and for stealing. ] 

" All persons willing to enli.st in the mihtary service of the Territory 
[for the Chinamen against the people] to serve in the city of Seattle, are 
hereby called upon to report as recruits to the [masonic] Provost Mar- 
shal. " , 

"All persons disposed to violate any law of the Temtory [which he 
himself had tramj^led under foot] or treaty [which had been virtually 
abrogated by Ay«'] or the constitution of the United States [which he himself 
was basely violating] are hereby warned and commanded to leave the city 
forthwith." [Members of the gang excepted.] 



" The guns in the keeping of Stevens Post of the Grand Army were 
taken charge of by the Governor on Sunday, and removed." He was 
afraid of the old veterans.] 

"Sers'ices in the churches were cut short msome cases, and dispensed 
with in others, on Sunday, and the i^ublic meetings set for Monday even- 
ing were both indefinitely postponed." [The people were being squelched 
to protect the lawless masons, and for i^lunder.] 

" About 7 o'clock last night sentinels were stationed all over town, and 
patrolled the streets all night. Every man on the street after that time 
without a permit from the Provost Marshal was marched either to his 
home or to the guard house. At daylight the sentinels w;ere released, 
and during the day the streets were patrolled by militia. 

The [prostituted] court house which is the headquarters of the [ma- 
sonic] authorities under [desjiotic] military regime was closely guarded, 
and a sufficient force kept on duty [at the exi)ense of the peoi)le] to 
repel any ordinary attack [of the people] and a cannon was taken to the 
court house " [to kill the people]. 

" Dm-ing Tuesday the [masons] in command concludatl that jiasses 
for jsersons to be about the streets had been too generously granted, and 



536 Martial Law on Puget Sound. 

all passes were ordered called in, and a more rigid rule of granting them 
established." 

[And still there was no " violence, " or "conflict," or "rebellion" 
on the part of the citizens. And the only "invaders" were the masonic 
highbinders thus protected.] 

* * 

The President in a message says "under this article [of treaty] an 

act of Congress approved 1882, amended 1884, suspended for ten years the 
coming of Chinese laborers to the United States .... It was, however, soon 
made evident that the mercenary greed of parties [masons] who were trad- 
ing in their labor was proving too strong for the just execution of the law, 
and that the virtual defeat of the object and intent of both the law and the 
treaty was being fraudulently accomplished by false pretense and perjury 
contrary to the expressed will of both governments, . . . .has produced deej)- 
seated and increasing discontent among the people of the United States, and 
especially "wdth those resident on the Pacific coast, .... and the earnest pop- 
ular demand for the absolute exclusion of Chinese laborers It is ad- 
mitted to be a paramount right and duty of every government to exclude 
from its borders all elements of foreign population which, for any reason, 
retard its prosperity, or are detrimental to the moral and physical health 
of its people. " 

[Because such foreign element is masonic and thus conspires in the 
dark with the native masonic element, and by "unpunished and indorsed 
false pretenses " and " jjerjury " prostitute and debauch the courts and 
"authorities" for their protection against the law and the people, is no 
good reason that the people should not enforce the law and protect 
themselves against the gang.] 

* 
" The headquarters of Commander-in-chief [chief mason] are in the 
Judge's chambers." 

^^ Military Headquarters." 
"Any person violating the jirovisions of any law of the United States 
or Washington Territorj^ or the ordinances of the city in force at the time 
of the i^roclamation of martial law heretofore made [the Chinese and 
other brethren excepted] wHl be promptly arrested and summarily dealt 
with. By order of the [chief mason]," 



"Martial law," says Blackstone, " is in eflfect no law at all." 
"Martial law," says Judge Nelson, "is neither more nor less than the 
will of the General who commands the army. It overrides and suppresses 
all existing civil laws, civil officers and ci%'il authorities, by the arbitrary 
exercise of mihtarj' jjower, and every citizen or subject (in other words 
the entire population of the country within the confines of its power) is 



Martial Law on Puget Sound. 537 

subject to the mere Avill or caprice of the commancler. He holds the 
lives, liberty and property of all iu the palm of his hand." 

[ Uyimeas urable Gall. ] 

' ' No passes shall be issued to any one to appear on the streets 
after night, except such persons as have duties which absolutely re- 
quu'e such passes ; then only when it is made to apjoear to the satis- 
faction of the Provost Marshal that the person applying has been a 
peaceable, law-abiding citizen, who has endeavored to uphold the law [?] 
within the last ten days. All passes shall be registered in a book kept for that 
purpose, and the person receiving the same shall enroll his name in 
said book. Said pass shall specify the hours within which it is good. 
All permits to keep open any places of business must be recorded in 
the Provost Marshal's office. By order of the [chief mason]." 

* * 

•X- 

["Treason doth never prosper. 

What's the reason ? 

Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason."] 



"It was learned yesterday morning that the President had not yet 
ordered troops to Seattle, although urgently requested to do so by [the 
chief mason] . This fact was laid before prominent [masons] of the town, 
most of whom joined in earnest requests to [masonic] Senators to urge 
upon the President the necessity for speedy action in this matter. Tele- 
gi'ams were received from Vancouver that the troops were in readiness 
to start at a moment's notice. A train is in waiting, so as to biing them 
through in short order." 



' ' Charles G. Stewart [shot by the masons] died from the eflfects of his 
wounds at three o'clock Tuesday morning." 

[He had sworn] that "this [mason] raised his gun and struck me 
across the head, and at the same time a bullet struck me on the arm, and 
I fell from the eflfects of the blow on my head and the wound on the arm. 
Some man then shot me in the body when I Avas down." 

" The three others [that were dangerously wounded] are doing as 
well as can be expected, but cannot tell the result until the foui-th day." 

[The murderers were being shielded and sanctioned by the gang with 
the powers of our Government, and] "The authorities [in fear of their 
lives for then* conduct] have seized all the tire-arms offered for sale in 
the city, and given strict orders that no dealer in ammimition dispose of 
any, except upon an order from [the Masonic] 'authorities.' " 



538 Martial Law on Puget Sound. 

"No theater or lAace of amusement lias been opened to the public 
since martial law was declared." 

* 
"The comijaratively few Chinamen in town are waiting anxiously for 
the day to arrive when they can leave Seattle. Nine-tenths of those now 
here will go below on the 'Elder,' if nothing unforeseen happens to prevent 
their departure." 

"A request hy the citizens for return to civil law." 

"Whereas, it is of the greatest importance that the civil authorities 
resume theii* sway, 

We, the undersigned, on behalf of a large number of citizens, resi^ect- 
fully request your Excellency to j^lace our city under the control of the 
civil authorities, in order that the peace of the city may be maintained 
and that business may resume the even tenor of its way, and the ci\-il 
authorities be emjaowered to serve mid execute all processes of law, civil or 
criminal, loithoiit fear or favor. We, therefore, represent that the great 
majority of our citizens are in favor of the re-instatement of the civil 
authorities, and are determined to support and respect the laws." 

[But this was spumed by the favored and curled darlings, and] "The 
mercenary greed of jiarties who were trading in Chinese labor, and by 
fraud, false pretenses and perjury, was too strong for the law." 

And I quote: " Those officials who have been bribed and bulldozed 
into letting the leprous heathens land in San Francisco and other places, 
have already made fortunes, and like the Chinese 'they must go.' " 

* * 
* 

\But they ^ooiddgo.] — "Between boats and trains fully 150 Chinamen 

have gone from Seattle during the jiast three days, not to return. They 

have been working busily to get off, and those who can go seem eager and 

hajJiay enough to go. Many white persons went among them seeing them 

pack, and here and there buying a curio. Scenes of this kind, though 

c®mmon in Europe, have been few and far between in America." 

* * 

' ' The gatherings upon the street corners yesterday were smaller than 
the days before, and the utterances less violent and revolutionary [against 
the gang] . There are still a few men and women who talk about hanging 
this [murderer] and that [mm-derer] , but steps have been taken to arrest 
and severely punish such offenders against the [Masons] and it will soon 
be stopped. Yesterday a number of ai-rests were made." 

"Members of the local mihtary companies who refused 'duty' and 
who are charged Avith 'treasonable utterances,' have been arrested, and 
will be court-martialed." 

["Truth forever on the seaftbld, 
Wrong forever on the throne."] 



Martial Law on Puget Sound. 539 

"All ' disorderly ' persons, or persons wandering about and ba^'iug no 
visible calling or business to maintain themselves, and generally all 
vagrants, [lia\-ing been despoiled by the gang] , are requested to leave the 
city of Seattle forthwith. 

All such persons found in this city after this date will be arrested and 
summarily dealt with. All persons uttering treasonable or seditious lan- 
guage [members of the gang excepted], or who are guilty of pubHcly 
using words or actions tending to disturb the peace or in contempt of the 
[Masonic] constituted authorities, will be promptly arrested. 

The Provost Marshal and other officers and [Masonic] persons, autho- 
rized to make aiTests, are esi^ecially charged with the promjst execution of 
this order.' 

Signed, [Noble-Grand-High-Chief -Mason. ] 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

Court Martial and a MHiiTARY Commission. — Wilh a Judge Advocate 
and Recorder now under eight indictments for forgery and robbery, 
— With other big criminals in comm,and. — Crime made respectable 
and to TELii THE TRUTH is made a crime. 

"February 10th, 1886. 

/i. GENERAXi court martial is hereby convened to meet at these head- 
quarters at 1 o'clock this afternoon for the trial of all offenders [against 
the masons] who may be brought before it. 

General [Mason] [who is now under eight indictments for forgery and 
robber y'\ is hereby detained as Judge Advocate of the Court. " 

["Put into every honest hand a whip to lash the rascals naked through 
the world."] 

[No loonder.l "Afeehng of relief pervaded the whole community 
when it was learned that troops had been ordered to Seattle." 



"Immediately after the shooting February 8th, a warrant was sworn 
out against [the masons who did the shooting] charging them with mur- 
der. The warrant has never been sei-ved. However, three of them have 
since jjresented themselves at court, waived examination, and were re- 
leased on ^5,000 bail each." 

^^ An authentic account. — W. . pulled Stewart roughly toward him, and 
C . . grabbed Stewart by the throat. With this W . . released his hold, 
clubbed his Winchester and dealt Stewart a blow on the head that feUed 
him to the ground. As he lay upon the gi-ouud B . . and B . . fired their 
rifles into his prostrate body, inflicting the death wounds. They then 
raised theii* guns, and together with C . . and H . . emptied them into the 
defenseless and inoff'ensive crowd, seriously wounding four other citizens." 

[What kind of justice is it that indorses and tui-ns such cases loose, 
and hangs others for less crime ? 

And they and their accessories say : " We have a good judiciary."] 



" When the soldiers (300) arrived, a man who was in the crowd on the 
Ocean Dock jsointed to the ' home guards, ' who were ' on duty ' near by, 
and shouted to the soldiers, loud enough to be heard by the vast concourse 
of peojjle : ' There is a murderer in that crowd ! There is a murderer in 
that crowd ! ! There is a murderer in that crowd ! ! ! ' 

Then addressing himself to the masses, exclaimed : ' Thank God ! 
we are out from under the control of the murderers ! ' 

(540) 



A Tyrant in Command. 541 

He was ai-rested and placed in jail " [for thus expressing the senti- 
ments of the people and of his own heart, and evidently the truth ; thus is 
justice murdered. 

Murder, like treason, when it prosjjers, it is made respectable, and 
called virtue, and it is made a crime to call it murder. 

It is the weakest, not the worst, that goes to the walLJ 

* * 

* 

"A clerk of the Probate court was arrested for uttering loud au.l 
* treasonable ' language on the streets. ' " 

' ' Mr. McMillan was arrested for ' treasonable ' utterances, and put in 
jail. He has often said that he would Avillingly serve a sentence in the 
penitentiary if it would aid in lidding Seattle of the Chinese." 
" Military Headquarters." 

"Special order heretofore issued, relating to the appointment of the 
court martial is set aside, and the follo^\•ing officers are appointed a Mili- 
tary Commission to inquire into all matters that may be brought before 
them : Captain [Mason] [now under $10,000 bail, he being indicted as 
one of the gang of smugglers that has been operating for many years (they 
being -winked at by masonic officials) and also for stealing.] 

General [Mason] is hereby detained as Judge Advocate and Re- 
corder." [This gentleman being now under eight indictments for forgery 
and robbery of over §60,000. 

Such gentry are the ones who have so much secret influence with 
blackleg Governors and courts against honest citizens.] 



"C. H. M., a plasterer, one of the leading agitators, was arrested 
and placed in jail." [He is now attorney general.] 

"By order of the Provost Marshal, Police Officer Mui'phy was re- 
lieved from duty [and then arrested and imprisoned] on account of his 
alleged complicity with the exjjulsion of the Chinese." 

[I give a few examjiles only of the tyranny and brutahty of the gang. 
Mui-phy was made Mayor of the city the follo^^•ing election, and the whole 
administration of the city and county was placed in the hands of the 
agitators and "Mob" — Avith which was inaugurated and maintained a 
season of peaceful prosjierity unknown before. 

The peojile had no use for dogfish and blackleg desjiots, for mihtia. 
or for United States troops. For the people ruled, and the laws were then 
more evenly enforced. ] 

* * 

* 

"Fourteen Chinamen who were induced to leave the Puyallup Valley 
passed by here on their way to Port Townsend yesterday morning, and one 
Chinaman came down from Olympia bound for Victoria. He says all the 



642 A Tyrant in Command. 



Chinamen will leave Olympia if the money can be raised to pay their pas- 
sage," [but they were induced to remain by the white brethren.] 



"Yesterday morning we published the fact that the miners had gone 
over from Black Diamond and FrankUn to Carbonado to drive the Chinese 
out. On arrival there, the miners assisted the Chinamen, fifty-six in num- 
ber, on board the train. They were brought to Tacoma, where they 
boarded the steamer for Port Townsend. While at Seattle the writer 
boarded the steamer and found one member of the [masonic] band who 
could talk good English. He said the Chinamen were paid off Wednes- 
day. Thui'sday morning a big crowd of miners, two or three hundred, 
came, and the spokesman said : 

" China boys, we want you all to leave this camp." I said to him, 
" You bet your life we Avant to go. As so many miners wanted its to leave, 
we concluded to go. I think we will go to China. " 

[The people were simply enforcing the laws that their masonic j^er- 
jured agents had refused to do and had overridden — they owing their first 
allegiance to their masonic government and brethren in the dark, who 
were thus too strong for the law. 

A single masonic-ridden court smuggled about 10, 000 Chinamen into 
the country — using the "court " as a blind.] 



" Cajjtain (now Colonel) [Mason] was one of the first persons to report 
to the Sheriff for diity when it was learned that the ' law was being vio- 
lated ! ' He was appointed to take charge of the provost guai'd, which 
was equivalent to an appointment as military chief of police." 

[When at the very time, according to recent indictments, he was in a 
"great conspiracy" with his secret gang against the Government and its 
laws. 

And he was, and is, also ' the leading member of the bar ' [court 
gang] in the Territory, and talked of by ring papers as bound for Con- 
gress. 

If this blistering wrong and secret power was not on the throne, so as 
to make itself resj^ectable, a despot, tyrant, and assassin with impunity, 
and make it a crime to tell the truth and expose the cancer I, with my ex- 
perience and information, could give dozens of such examples. "Tremble, 
thou wretch, thou hast within thee undivulged crimes unwhipp'd of 
justice."] 

"Further arrests were made for 'seditious language' which, -with 
others under arrest, will be tried [ ?] by the mihtary commission as soon as 
charges can be formulated against them. The commission will sit without 
regard to hours. The proceedings uyill be private/' 



A Tyrant in Command. 543 

''Leaving toicn. — A large number of the non-producing classes [ma- 
sons, etc., excepted] have left Seattle since martial law was declared." 
[They were driven out in violation of law and the Constitution of the United 
States.] 

"Sixth Day of Maktial Law." 

"The existence of martial law has comi^letely jirostrated business. 
All branches of business are sufleriug, except the hotels and restaurants. 
Travel is very light, and but few people are coming into town, while a 
great many are driven out." 

* * 

* 

" Reports reached the ears of the ' authorities ' that the agitators were 
holding secret meetings in the subui-bs, and the [masonic] ' home guards ' 
were called together and sent out to do skirmish duty last night." 

[But the white and Chinese Masons & Co. can hold their secret meet- 
ings with brazen impunity. 

The martial law-masonic-desi30tism was ground into the people for 
about fifteen days, but yet, even this did not goad the people into a con- 
flict, so determined were they to maintain the j)eace as was the case before. 

The United States troops remained for several months. The object 
of which will appear in the succeeding chapter.] 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

Expense to the People and where the Money goes. — One Masom 
GETS ^100 PER Day. — "Why the Chinese were influenced to stay. 
— So-called "White Chinamen" in Danger of being driven out, 
like they had driyen other non-producing and dis-reputable 
White Citizens. — The Judgment of the people and the Supreme Court. — 
The martial law "Mere Lawless Violence." — But ^^the trail of the 
Serpent is over them all." — (What belongs "between the lines.") 

It is our opinion, and the opinion of every one with whom we have 
talked, that it is not the party that is trying to get rid of the Chinese 
[Masonic] nuisance, that is to blame for the bloodshed in Seattle and the 
arrest of certain parties in Olympia, but the j^arty that assimies to 'enforce 
the law. ' 

Is it not a fact that the Chinese both in Seattle and Olympia, signified 
a wilHngness to go ? 

If the self-styled, law-abiding citizens had attended to their own busi- 
ness, as they did in Tacoma, there would have been no bloodshed in 
Seattle, no citizens incarcerated on McNeil's Island, and the cities of 
Seattle and Olymjiia would have been relieved of an intolerable nuisance 
without any trouble on their part, and without the assistance of the U. S. 
soldiers. 

Does not every one admit that the Chinese are a nuisance ? 

Then why tolerate them ? Have we, of this coast, no rights that the 
National Government is bound to resjject ? Are we obhged to submit to 
the curse of Mongolian depravity for an indefinite number of years, be- 
cause of an ' error ' committed by our representatives ? We are ready to 
admit that the proper method of proceeding would be by legislation, but 
what can we hope for in that direction ? Have not the peoj^le of this coast 
been complaining for years of the oppression of the laboring element, in 
consequence of these foreign barnacles ? Has Congress ever done any thing 
to really remedy the e^il ? No, and they never will until the people, the 
rightful rulers of this Government, rise in their might and say, ' you shall 
remove this nuisance from our midst, or we wUl make it uncomfortably 
warm for them. ' [This was proven true. ] But some one says, ' that 
would be a violation of law.' The tea riot in Boston, in 1773, was a viola- 
tion of law, and yet it was an indispensable link in the chain of causes, 
which led to the Declaration of Independence, and those who fought the 
battle of Lexington on the American side might have been jirosecuted 
under the riot act, and yet the beneficial results of that battle and those 
that followed are highly appreciated by the American people to-daj-. It 
is sometimes necessary for the jjeoijle to assei't their rights in a striking 
manner, and I think this is one of the times. J. J. C." 

(544) 



The Judgment of the People. 545 

"Reports have it that a number of citizens [' Wliite Chinamen,'] who 
have made themselves obnoxious to the anti-Chinese people, have been 
ordered out of Tacoma. Their going is more than doubtful, but the threat 
is disagreeable all the same. Lilce talk has been heard in Seattle, and its 
heeding is more doubtful here than in Tacoma." 

[Are not these "white Masonic Chinamen" "non-producers," who 
live by desijoihng and fatten on turmoil and the misery of others ? Are 
not the cream of them robbers and thieves ? And at least " objectionable" 
to the people ? Then why should they not be driven out, Kke other i^ara- 
sites and vermin ?] 

" Wilkeson citizens meet. Discuss the questions of the day and 

Resolve, that we symi^athize fully with the resolutions expressed by the 
Seattle anti-Chinese convention. 

Resolved, that we deplore all violence and think it was a needless pre- 
caution on the jjart of the Governor to exact that deputy sheriflfs should be 
api^ointed or he would cause troops to be brought into the country, and 
to spread abroad that we are a lawless people. 

Resolved, that we heartily endorse the action taken by Mayor Weisbach 
and his co-laborers and the press of Tacoma, in the manly and straight- 
forward manner they have pursued in ridding the country of the scom'ge 
of serf labor. " 

* * 

"A gathering of the people of South Prairie." "Were unanimous that 
the Chinese must go, and without a dissenting vote 

^^ Resolved, that we heartily endorse the sentiments expressed in the re- 
solutions passed by the Convention at Seattle. 

Resolved, that we regard the situation of laboring people as one of im- 
minent dangei", thereby necessitating active measures to jjrotect them from 
a poverty which must follow in the f ootstejjs of this Tartaric serfdom. 

Resolved, that we most emphatically denounce the action of Governor 
[Mason] in needlessly causing the appointment of dejjuty sheriflfs, thereby 
publishing abroad that we are a lawless people, not capable of maintaining 

jjeace." 

* * 

"Several days before the meeting of the chamber of commerce at 
Tacoma it was understood that a petition would be jiassed, to the Presi- 
dent, for the removal of Governor [Mason] , for, what has almost unani- 
mously been pronounced, an unnecessaiy and oflScious intermeddling %nth 
local aflfaii-s in Tacoma. But this flattened out under the skillful manage- 
ment of Mr. [Mason] . 

Governor [Mason] , with his breath like the steaming exhalation of a 
bowl of hot rum punch, Avas then judiciously steered into the newspajjer 
offices to 'explain.' [He wanted a hearing.] 
35 



546 The Judgment of the People. 

On Tuesday night lie explained again in the Ledger oflSce, but the 
more he exjilained the more apparent it became that he had imposed upon 
Sheriff Byrd the alternative of troops or deputy sheriffs. 

[And so the Sheriff of Tacoma made deputies of the anti- Chinese 
agitators themselves, instead of the "White Chinamen," and there was no 
riot, no conjlict, no rebellion and no murder, such as there was at Seattle.] 

Governor [Mason] is still as deserving of condemnation for his con- 
duct, as he was before he began to wag his tongue and isunish whiskey at 
Tacoma last Tuesday night. " 

* * 
* 

" A petition is to be circulated immediately, asking President Cleve- 
land to remove Governor [Mason]. Had he been removed long since, it 
would have saved our territory from a disgrace and ignomy which will 
require years to wij^e out. Before a drop of blood was shed, simply be- 
cause an oppressed [half housed and half mortgaged] i)eoi3le gave the 
[Masonic] coolies the ticket of leave, he hastily telegraphs the President, 
demanding the protection of Government troops and a proclamation at 
once. The proclamation was issued, commanding the ' outlaws ' and 
' mob ' to disjaerse, and it was jsrinted in every pa23er in the land, nearly. 
[Mason] exaggerated the trouble beyond a doubt, and his in jiidicious haste 
and anxiety in telegrai:)hing the President was doubtless caused by a desire 
to curry favor in the eyes of the present administration. The danger of 
giving out to the world the false imjjression that we are an ignorant, un- 
lawful and riotous people, and probability of hurting our chances for ad- 
mission and self government, did not curb the Governor's anxiety for 
notoriety. Therefore, let him be relegated to the obscurity and oblivion 
into which he would place our jseoiile. Men and even women have been 
arrested on the charge of inciting riot. They have agitated the Chinese 
question and advocated the i^oHcy of boycotting the aliens, for which they 
were arrested on the above charge." 

* * 
* 

" In an inter^^ew with a merchant of Seattle it was ascertained that 
much of the trouble in that place arises from the fact that two jsrominent 
officials and others are financially interested in keeping the Chinese from 
leaving. It is alleged that Governor [Mason] holds large landed interests 
in and about Seattle which he has leased almost exclusively to Chinamen 
for years, and that it is to his financial benefit to exercise his power and in- 
fluence to keep his tenants from going away. 

It IS positively stated that were it not for the parties named, the 
Chinese would be quite willing to leave the jjlace, as they are boycotted on 
every side, and law-abiding citizens would aid in their departure." 



" The order calling the troops away from Seattle has been rescinded on 
the information furnished the Government that it was the calculation to 



The Judgment of the People. 547 



mt ocluce mtothe city, upon the ^ithcWal of the soldiers, 600 ai-med 
men to take possession, and expel the remaining Chinamen and the disre- 
tCpeoVlf^^^^^^ *°°^ ^ prominent part [agaLt 



* 



"When Seattle endeavored to remove the Chinese incubus some 
'veiyloyal' officers of the Govei^ment saw an oppoxiunity to g've thSx 
abihtaes an auing. When bloodshed ensued the boomers of SeattL sa^ 
an opportunxty for a big ' whiz-1 ' in calling for troops. Governor MasonT 
gave It the nnpetus of official momentum by a declaration of mai al aw 
-hich made a perfect ' whix-l ' of aollars around the vorte:c of Ms pocket.^ 

If the party coiu-ts defeat, it AviU nominate Governor I Mason] for 
delegate. He of all others would be most weighted down by the hi" 

Ucums who by their tumultuous proceedings have brought a taint upon 

he whole Territory. The people have grown tired of dicltion, and woxZ 

desire no be ter opportunity than to slaughter om- redoubtable Bomrstes 

ITZ^J^ ^"^% ^'? "-^.^ '''- *™^^ - *^^ --^-1 law alarm L 
not the lever for good work. The man who has achieved distinction solely 
on account of wealth ,s not the one in whom the laborer would place Hs 
tru t. The fop can have nothmg in his composition, natifi-al or acquii-ed 
that can compensate for the hole on one side of his brain. He Xse 
physical energy must be constantly braced up by hot cushions, and who e " 
spin ual nature IS so refined that he cannot eat off dishes used by orheis 
should not be aUowed to wander far from home. He belongs to the Mdl 
glove gentry, and he figm-es more as a dude than a statesman. " 

* * * 

"It is said that the only persons who have made anything out of 
the maitial law at Seattle have been the landlords who have rented 
quarters for the soldiers at '49 prices." 

"The Salem ^./tt- suggests that Governor [Mason] be sent to Utah 
to settle the Mormon difficulty. He can have 1 few uioffenrng citizens 
shot down and then 'standin' with the ['good'] judiciary LT "o 
claim martial law to protect them from retaliatory measLs ThL 
prompt and patnotic course would stiike terror to the he^-S'of the 
rabble and at once restore harmony." *^® 

Cn.Z^^ ^'^^- is evidently sarcastic in the recommendation, and our 
Governor ^viU reacbly see there is no money in it, unless he fij t ob 
tain the control of a few shacks in Mormo^land to hire to the Cnv" 
ernment for barracks at rates which would be conside d I fai^ren i 
for the Pahner House m Chicago." 

* * * 
"King county presents her little bill of S4,000 to the Government 
for expenses incun-ed in the late disturbances. This, we presu'ri 



548 The Judgment of the People. 



for the 'relief of the smaller fishes which did not get their fins in at 
the rate of $100 per clay, Hke the big ^\.^\e-Gove^-nor {Mason] 

Everything is fish that came in [the gangs] net. When it fails to 
press each good thing as it turns up. it ^^■ill he when its toes are in 
the air." 

" Tacoma, Washington Territory, August 18th, 1886. 
The f oUowing additional resolutions were adopted unanimously : 
Whereas, W. C. [Mason], Governor of Washington Terntory, on the 
8th day of Febmary, in the city of Seattle, in violation of his oath of 
office and the laws of the land and in contravention of the hberties oi 
free men guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, did pro- 
claim martial law and suspend the writ of habeas corpus, and did unlaw- 
fully and wrongfuUy arrest and imprison citizens without any charge or 
crime against them ; therefore be it 

" Resolved, By the democracy of Washington Temtory m convention 

assembled : , , , i j. ^ • „ 

" First, That said W. C. Mason has by his conduct brought disgrace 

and contempt on the official position held by him. 

" Second, That the President is earnestly requested by this convention 
to remove said Governor from his official position." 

* * * 

" The people's party coH^e^i^wn adopted the following resolutions unani- 
mously : T j.\ -i- t 

" Wliereas, The action of Governor [Mason] in suspendmg the writ ol 
habeas corpus and declaring martial law, and coercing with federal troops 
our sister city Seattle in time of peace, when the ci^1l authorities were 
fully able and competent to preserve the same, was an act of usurpation ot 
power only paralleled by the autocrat of Eussia. 

- The outrage on the people's rights and hberties was an act of usur- 
pation without parallel in our history-such as causes great commotion 
ind alarm among our people and calls for the severest condemnation. 

Therefore be it . ■„. r^ mT n 

" Resolved, That our people have no confidence m W. C. [Mason] as 
Governor of this Territorv, and severely condemn his actions as executive, 
and ask all people to unite in prayers for the removal of this unworthy 
servant." 

* * * 

'« The Supreme Court of the United States has rendered an important 
decision afi-ecting the question of the powers of the Federal Government 
in prosecuting individuals engaged in molesting or driving out Chinese 
residents XNdthin any of the States. The case was that of Baldwm and 
others charged with driving the Chinese out of Nicalaus, Calif oi-ma, within 
the last year. 



The Judgment of the People. 549 

The court holds, re-affirming United States vs. Han-is, 106 United 
States reports, page 629, that the Federal Government has no juiisdiction 
under the present state of law, and that the matter rests entirely with the 
local State coui'ts, (tnd thai section S,-519 Revised Statutes United States, is 
unconstitutional, in whole and in part, reverses the judgment of the Cir- 
cuit court of the Umted States for California and remand the case for 
further proceedings. This must ensure the discharge of the defendants." 

" This case was reviewed in connection with our Chinese conspu'acy 
cases by a correspondent ('Skeptic'). It was there shown that oiu- citi- 
zens had been indicted, tried and convicted under this same section (5,519 
R. S.) declared unconstitutional by the Supreme court, but notwithstcmding 
that. Judges Sawyer, Greene and Hoyt held it constitutional. 

"Meantime our ' (Olympia) conspirators,' so-called, have served out 
their sentence, and the Seattle and Tacoma parties, so charged, have been 
acquitted by juries of their peers, after the most strenuous efforts on the 
part of the Government to convict." 

[" Where God hath a temple, the masonic devil will have a secret 
chapel."] 

"I desire to enter my protest and arouse public indignation against the 
greatest outrage on individual libei*ty and the constitution and laws that 
has occun*ed in the unfortunate Chinese agitation at Seattle. I refer to 
the Governor's infamous conduct in susjsending the operation of the writ 
of habeas corjaus and establishing mai-tial law in Seattle, and to subject its 
people to all the horrors of an irresponsible miHtary desj^otism — to allow 
them to be imprisoned without lawful warrant and convicted without a 
jury trial. 

Here is the Governor of [masonic-ridden] Washington Territory 
arrogating to himself powers beyond those of the President, and u-hich Con- 
gress can exercise only ' whe7iin cases of rebellion or itivasion the public safety 
may requii'eit. ' (Constitution U. S., Article 1, Section 9, and amendments 
5 and 6.) 

To jDrevent great inconvenience and wrong to individuals, the public 
condemnation should be uttered with no uncertain sound. 

[So it should be as to innocent victims languishing in prison that the 
brutal tyrants sisurn.] 

It is bad enough that we should have a Governor who, by constant 
appeals to the general government for aid [for his brethren] admits that 
we are not capable of administering our own affairs, but when his timidity 
prompts such \'iolent and unconstitutional usurpation of authority, then it 
is full time that the administration should give us an executive who has 
the wisdom and courage to enforce the laws by lawful means. W. H. D." 

•' We think this protest is timely, and none too strong. According to 
the decision of the Supreme court in the Mulligan case — growing out of 
the ci^^l w.ar, reported in -L Wall — martial rule can only be called into ex- 
ercise by Congress, or temporarily when the action of Congi-ess cannot be 



550 The Judgment of the People. 

invited, or in justifying or excusing j)eiil by the President, in times of 
insun-ection or invasion, or civil or foreign war, witliin districts or locali" 
ties where ordinary law no longer secures pubHc safety or private rights. 

It is only lawful in districts actually occupied by the opposing forces and 
in inhich the civil courts are for the time being completely displaced. It cannot 
[lawfully] exist where the courts are oj)en and in the proper and und is- 
turbed exercise of their jurisdiction. [In Seattle the ' agitators ' appealed* 
iu vain to the courts.] 

It is also confined to the locality of actual war. As decided in this case 
it could not exist in the State of Indiana durhig the civil war. 

None of the circumstances under iphich martial lato is permissible with the 
suspensimi of habeas corpus exist at Seattle, and not even Congress would have 
the right to do what Governor [iH/aswi] has assumed to do. 

As the Supreme Court declares, when not authorized, martial law is 
* mere laxdess violence. ' 

[And the blacklegs called it ' law and order, '] 

The most that the Governor was authorized to do, was to call upon 
the militia or upon the President for the regular anny, which is the ultimate 
police to assist him in the exercise of his civil power in preserving the 
peace." 

[Plato defined man as *' a two-legged animal without feathers — having 

broad, flat nails. "] ^ ^ 

* 

"A convention of the people held in Oregon resolved that : 

' Whei-eas, In defiance of article 1, section 9, and amendments 5 and 
6 of the Constitution of the United States, and in utter violation of law, 
Governor [Mason] of Washington Territory has, with all the insolence of 
imperiaUsm, suspended the writ of habeas corpus, free speech and Hberty 
of assemblage, and declared martial law in defiance of the law of the land, 
as declared by the United States Supreme Court in 4 Wall, in the case of 
Mulligan; and 

Whereas, in addition to said illegal act a mob of his supporiers fired 
upon an assemblage of people, kiUing one and wounding three other 
people in Seattle, on the 8th day of Febmary, 1886; and 

'WJiei-eas said [Mason] has illegally imprisoned and deprived of Liberty 
various citizens of the United States without process of law; 

Resolved, that our Representatives in Congress be instructed to prefer 
articles of impeachment against said Governor [Mason] , and to present the 
same for action to the House of Representatives at once. 

Resolved, that fifty thousand cojiies of these resolutions be printed and 
that they be forwarded to every labor organization, anti-Chinese league 
and eveiy Granger's association in the United States, viith the request that 
each such organization ratify, adopt and approve these resolutions and 
order them sent to theirR ejjresentatives in Congi'ess, endorsed with their 
ui'gent demand for proper action thereon." 

[But the trail of the masonic, highbinder serpent was over them aU.] 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

A biief , comprehensive and practical History of Masonry, Knight Temp- 
lai's of Malta, St. John, Hospitalers, etc. — The Crusades to possess the 
Holy Laud, Egypt, etc. — How Jerusalem and Acre were taken and re- 
taken. — Why the Holy Land was made a desert. — The practical Avork- 
ings of the Masoniy and kindred orders of to-day. —Mostly the testimony 
of others as taken from books and the press. 

> V EBSTEK'S definition of Mason and Masonic, and Masonry and Free- 
Masonry is as follows : 

"Mason, an artificer in brick and stone; a Free-Mason." 

"Masonic, pertaining to Masonry." 

"Masonry, stone-work." 

What do the kid-gloved "Masons" of to-day know about handling 
stone ? But as Masonry was always an honorable jsroductive occupation, 
it can easily be seen how its good name and emblems of honest toil would 
be stolen to be used as a false cloak and bhnd by those who never had and 
never intended to cut or handle a rod of stone in their Uves; for with such 
cloaks and bhndsaud A\'ith secret intrigue they could filch the fruits of 
others'" toil. 

The Order or Organization of Masons was simply and only a Trade 
Union of roving mechanics of stone masons; mtJi an apron, compass, 
square, plumb, mallet and trowel as working tools and true emblems of 
their trade. These workmen being di\-ided into three classes: Apprentices, 
companions or comi-ades and masters. 

"The word 'free' in connection with mason signifies that the jjerson 
so called was free of the company, trade union or guild of masons. Those 
operative or working masons who were not thus made free of the guild 
were not permitted to work with those who were." 

The original and worthy jilan and the organization of real masons died 
out in about 1700. 

History does not teach that those trade unions of masons were any 
different from the other working-men's unions of the day, nor that they 
had any doctrines pecuhar to themselves. 

They had their emblems of then* mechanical trade-work and cere- 
monies like other trade federations. Thei-e were no " mysteries^ 

There are, however, many of the spurious masons of the day, who, 
anxious for an ancient and illustrious geueology to their craft, claim that 
masonry decends from the ancient "mysteries" of paganism and their 
heathen mythology and Gods. 

But Avhat would a trade union want of the false "doctrine" (?) of 
these old, exploded fables and mysterious juggleries, used as a cloak and 
bUnd to commit the most indecent immorality and crime ? 

(551) 



552 The Pkactical Wokkings of Masonry, etc. 

Those stone and brick masons who were wUhng to earn their liveli- 
hood by honest, hard labor and jjroduction, certainly had no use for de- 
ception and i^agan "mysteries " as a screen for secret crime ! 

On the contrary, they labored to build uj), to j^roduce and improve 
with their own calloused hands; not to corrupt, debauch, tear down, 
ravage, purloin and destroy the honest endeavors, institutions and homes 
of their neighbors. 

In building stone churches with their hands, ajirons, compasses, 
squares, plumbs, mallets, trowels, levels, etc., they gained the good will 
of priests and prelates and others of influence and power in the Govern- 
ment, and were thus and therefore granted special privileges, such as ex- 
emption and freedom from certain taxes. And in return, as a matter of 
courtesy, this trade union of working stone and brick masons would admit 
these benefactors to their union as Tionorary members. This appears 
to have been the entering wedge of the total destruction of the ancient 
society of masonry. Other men who did not work, excejDt with their wits 
and tongues, then — on account of the privileges they hoped to enjoy with- 
out earning them — ajiplied, and, by hook or crook, got themselves admit- 
ted as honorary or "accepted" masons, and these barnacles finally be- 
came so numerous and ruinous that the original plan, principles, and 
organization of active or "operative" or real Free-Masonry had died out 
in about 1700. 

"There was always some lord or count or duke, who was willing to act 
as president of the dying order. " 

In 1717, about 172 years ago, operative, or honest and productive 
masonry, without any revolting pagan "mysteries, "may be said to have end- 
ed, and "speculative " orspiirious, despoiling and "mysterious " masonry 
— which is the masonry of to-day and of blackleg officials — " may be said to 
begin. " 

They purloined and perverted the emblems of the honest toil of the 
old mechanical labor union of stone and brick masons, that they had 
barnacled and murdered, to the uses of their pagan "mystery" — juggleiy 
— blackleg-gang, to flourish in the eyes of the people for a blind with the 
Bible, to which these midnight infidels i^roclaim their reverence with flour- 
ish and parade in the streets, when such notorious infidels as Voltaii'e and 
Tom Paine were such prominent brethren in the gang. And they declare 
that "whether the candidate or brother is devoted to Brahma, Allah, Je- 
hovah, or Jesus, is no concern of theirs ; or whether he accejjts the Bible 
of the Christian, the Talmud of the Jew, the Koran of the Mohammedan, 
the Zend Avesta of the Persian, the Pidda's of the Hindoos, or the Edda's 
of the Goth as a true book of insiiiration, is a matter left entirely to him- 
self." 

The craft of honest, working, productive masonry appears to have 
been killed in much the same way as the farmers' Grange in the United 
States; non-producers and enemies to honest labor, even spurious masons. 



The Practical "Workings of Masonry, etc. 553 

odd-fellows, and other like barnacles, having got into the grange, were a 
secret wheel within a wheel, which they run backwards, over the pro- 
ducers, thus stripping and spoiling the wrecks they were making. 

* 

' ' Let us not inculcate that crimes lose their names and change their 
nature, because they are successful, or that because masonry has taken too 
firm a root to be eradicated its fruit is no longer poisonous. We have to 
contemj^late a triumjihant conqueror, who will neither pardon our in- 
effectual hostility, nor believe in our unnatural reconciliation. "' 

"We are indeed abandoned by the courts, which not only fails to i^ro- 
tect us, but weaken the security which we derive from our own suspicions. 
Is there a citizen in the United States whose person is at this moment pro- 
tected from masonic intrigue and violence ? '' 

* * 
* 

" Tlie bane of joy, the spring, the SOUBOE, 

Tlie gall of every other curse. " 

" To every man upon this earth 

Death cometh soon or late; 

And how can man die better 

Thau in facing fearful odds. 

For the ashes of his fathers 

And the temples of his Gods ? " 

* * 

* 

" The power of the government should be trusted only to those who 
are attached to it above all other governments. A king, a i^arliament, a 
congress, or an army of a different allegiance from that which the govern- 
ment professes, would be as absurd as to trust the deai'est concerns 
of a minor in the hands of a pei-son who had the most immediate interest 
to betray them. In vain would you plead in favor of such a trust that the 
guardian would be above taking advantage of his situation, nobody in his 
senses would think of putting his virtues to so severe a trial." 

* 

The Knight Templars of Malta, St. John, Hosi^italers, etc., etc., were 
a monastic disciphned military society of zealots — for blood and plunder. 
They were armed, and generally mounted, and protected by heavy armor 
and coats of iron, and engaged to fight the Turks, the Tartars and the 
Saracens in the bloody and disastrous crusades, to invade, pillage and 
hold the Holy Lands, Egypt and sections of other dominions, and they re- 
ceived big pay and plunder for their services. They made murdering and 
plundering expeditions against the caravans of jiilgrims travelHng to wor- 
ship at Mecca, and became so obnoxious and revolting to the peojile of the 
country — who called them " the 8^\'inish race" — that they were out-lawed 
and a price put on their heads. 

"Unlike the foot soldier of to-day in his simple uniform, who stands 
firm and steady in the face of both ritle and cannon, these Knights of old 
were covered from head to foot with a sheathing of iron mail and plate." 



554 The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 

And wlien the rifle and cannon came into use, which would allow them 
no great advantage over other men, but comi^elled an even fight, they went 
into other and more secret business, so as to still have an unf au- advantage 
in gaining or destroying what others had produced — as one of theu- family 
says : 

"My ancestors kept on with their commonplace occupation of 
slaughter and robbery as Knights, or intrigue and cruelty as ijriests. They 
had varied fortunes, now carousing in their own halls after a successful 
foray, anon chaffing in irons between the walls of an enemy's dungeon. 
They were a versatile race, and when plate-mail went out of fashion, be- 
cause the people had learned the use of fire-arms, my people were the first 
to recognize the changed condition. Thereafter they figured in the learned 
prufessions, and sought to secure by persuasion and the advantage of 
suijerior knowledge what they usee" to take by force." Others say that 
they figured more largely as i^irates in the Mediten-anian and thus lived 
sumptuously on naked islands in the sea. 

* 
Here is an account of some of their "victories" and cold-blooded 
slaughter on land and also their defeat. They were promised by the 
"Christian" King of Jerusalem the jjlunder of the wealthy city of Bel- 
beis in Egypt for their i^ay if they would capture and hold the place ; so 
"the Egyptians were taken completely by surprise, the city of Belbeiswas 
taken and the defenseless inhabitants were barbarously massacred. Their 
cruelty and injustice, however, s^Deedily met with condign punishment and 
the Knights fled before the Egyi:)tians in sorrow and disappointment to 
Jerusalem, their piety dwindled and they went to killing each other in 

their constant quarrels. " 

* * 

In 1099 the Knights, with about 700,000 other "Christians," had 
taken Jerusalem from the Saracens or Cahphs of Egypt, and not only put 
all who resisted to the sword, but also massacred about 10,000 inoffensive 
citizens, men, women and children. Then laying down their arms they 
waded through the sea of human blood to the Holy Sepulchre. "They 
gave the city up to pillage and slaughter, and exhibited a scene of cruelty, 
barbarity, carnage and distress, too shocking to be conceived of or de- 
scribed ; and when neither age nor sex remained to glut the vengeance of 
their swords, they ajjproached the sepulchre, their hands yet warm with 
the blood of the aged, the infant and the mother, and paid their de- 
votions at the shrine of the prince of peace. Godfrey, King of Prance, 

was chosen king of Jerusalem." 

* * 
* 

To rid the coiantry of such invaders, the Holy Land \riih. its thickly 
populated districts and innumerable clusters of \-illages, quantities of 
strong castles, and eighty cities, was all reduced to a devastated Avilderness 
in 1291, and governed by the Turks, to whom Jerusalem was also "the 
Holy City." 



The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 555 

In this re-takiug of Jerusalem by the turks, "the air was rent ■withthe 
loud Mussulman shouts, the Holy City! the Holy City ! When they had 
finished their jjrayers, the loud trumpets of Saladin summoned the Christ- 
ians to surrender the House of God to the arms of the faithful ; but the 
Christians returned for answer that, please God, the Holy City should not 
be surrendered. The next morning at sunrise the terrified 'nhabitants 
were awaked by the clangor of horses and drums, the loud clash of arms 
and the fierce cries of the foe. 

The women and children rushed to the churches and threw them- 
selves on theii knees before the altar, weeping and wailing and hf ting up 
their hands to Heaven, Avhile the men hastened to man the battlements. 
Monks and canons, bishops and jjriests, took arms in defense ot the Holy 
Seijulchre, and lined in warHke array the dark gray battlements and towers 
of Jerasalem. 

But the Mussulman archers soon became so numerous and so expert 
that the garrison dare not show themselves upon the wall. Saladin also 
employed his troops in the construction of mihtary engines, stationing 
10,000 cavalry around the city to intercept fugitives and i^revent the intro- 
duction of suijphes. When his engines were completed he directed all his 
efforts against the northern wall of the city, which extended between St. 
Steven's Gate and the Gate of Joppa, from which the successful assaults 
had been made by the crusaders eighty-eight years before. 

Barefoot processions of women, monks and priests were continually 
made to the Holy Sepulchi-e, to implore the Son of God to save his tomb 
and his inheritance from impious violation. The females as a mark of 
humility and distress, imitating the Saracens, cut off then- hair and cast 
it to the winds, while the ladies of Jerusalem made then* daughters do 
penance by standing up to their necks in tubs of cold water placed upon 
Calvary. 

To ijrevent the garrison from attempting to break the force of the 
battering rams, Saladin constructed vast engines for throwing stones, and 
other machines, which cast enormous stones, and the terrible Greek fire and 
combustible materials contained in brass pots, and flaming beams of tim- 
ber covered with pitch and naphta, upon the ramjKirts and over the walls 
into the city. He, moreover, emjjloyed miners to saj) the foundations 
of the towers, and on the 16th of September, 1187, the angle of the north- 
ern wall, at the northwest where it touches the valley Hinnom, was thrown 
down with a tremendous crash. 

In the morning a sui^ijliant deputation proceeded to Saladin to im- 
jjlore his mercy, but ere they reached the imperial tent the assault had 
commenced, and twelve Moslem banners waved in triumish upon the 
breach. The Sultan accordingly refused to hear the messengers, declar- 
ing that he would take Jerusalem from the Franks as they had taken it 
from the Moslems — sword in hand. However, the Hberty and security of 
the inhabitants were pui'chased for about $750 dollars for each man. 



556 The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 

"Saladin restored the sacred area of the temple to its original -condition 

■under the first Mussulman concxueror, the Cliiistian bells were silent, the 

chiarches -nere destroyed, the Koran was read, the imaums were again 

heard, and Islam once more resumed its sway 1187." 

* * 

* 

After the loss of Jerusalem the city of Acre was coveted for the 
metropolis of the invaders, and they took it at the cost of about 300,000 
■' Christian " men, with as many Saracens in 1191, and strongly fortified it. 

But it was recovered again after a siege of six weeks. "Neither by 
night nor by day did the shouts of the assailants and the noise of the 
military engines cease. Huge stones and beams of timber and pots of 
burning tar and naphta were continually hiirled into the city. The 
walls were battered from without, and the foundations were sapped by 
miners who were incessantly laboring to advance their works. More than 
600 catai^ults, ballistae and other instruments of destruction were directed 
against the fortifications, and the battering machines were of such im- 
mense size and weight that 100 wagons were required to transport the 
separate timbers of one of them. Movable towers were erected by the 
Moslem, so as to overtop the Avails. Their woi'kmen and advanced parties 
were protected by hurdles covered with rawhides, and all the mihtary 
contrivances which the art and the skill of the age could produce were 
used to facihtate the assault. Day by day the nvimber of the garrison 
was thinned by the sword, whilst in the enemy's camp the places of the 
dead were constantly supphed by fresh warriors, animated with the same 
wild fanaticism in the cause of their religion as that which distinguished 
the invaders. 

After thirty-three days of constant fighting the great tower, considered 
the key of the fortifications and called by the Moslem the 'Cursed Tower,' 
was thrown down by the military engines. To increase the terror and dis- 
traction of the besieged. Sultan Khalil moiinted 300 drummers with their 
drums upon as many dromedaries, and had them make as much noise aa 
possible whenever a general assault was ordered." 

" At sunrise the air resounded with a deafening noise of drums and 
trumi)ets, and the breach was carried and recovered several times. Loud 
appeals to God and to Mohammed, to Jesus Christ, to the Virgin Mary, to 
Heaven and the Saints were to be heard on all sides, and after an obstinate 
engagement from sunrise to sunset darkness put an end to the slaiighter. 
The miners continued incessantly to advance their operations. Another 
wide breach was oi^ened in the walls, and on the third day the enemy 
made the final assault on the side next the gate of St. Anthony. The 
panic-stricken garrison fled to the port, and the Moslem rushed on with 
tremendous shoiits of ''Allah hu Achbar! " 

Thousands of panic-stricken invaders now fled to the seaside and 
sought with frantic violence to gain possession of the ships and boats that 
rode at anchor in the port. But a frightful storm of wind and rain and 



The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 557 

liglitniug liiiug over the dark auci agitated waters of tlie sea. The elements 
themselves warred against the invaders, and the loud-peaUng thunder became 
mingled with, the din and ujiroar of the assault and the clash of arms. 
The boats and vessels were swamped by the singing waves and the bitter 
ciies of the perishing fugitives ascended alike from the sea and the shore. 
Thousands fled to the churches for refuge but found none. 

The Grand Master of the Knight Templars with his companions — de- 
serting these fugitives which were under their protection — loaded them- 
selves with treasure, and escaped in the night through a secret passage 
they had provided for themselves, communicating Avith the harboi', 
boarded vessels in waiting, and escaped in safety to the island of Cyprus, 
which was after this their headquarters. The Moslem Mamelukes set fire 
to the town in four places. The walls, the towers and the ramj^arts were 
demolished, and the last stronghold of the " Christians" in Palestine was 
speedily reduced to a smoking solitude. 

Thus closed the long and fm-ious struggle between the Crescent and 
the Cross, A. D. 1291. The few remaining Christians in the Holy Land 
were chased from ruin to ruin and exterminated. The churches, the 
houses and the fortifications along the sea coast were demolished, and 
everything that could afi'ord shelter and security, or iuAdte the api^roach 
of the Crusaders from the West, was carefully destroyed. The houses 
were all set on fire, the trees icere cut down and burned, the land was every- 
where laid waste, and all the maritime country, from Laodicea to Ascalon, 
was made a dessert. "Every trace of the crusader," says an Arabian 
writer, ' ' was removed, and thus it shall remain, jilease God, until the day 
of Judgment ! " 



The Knight Templars had been in bad reijute for a long time in 
Europe on account of their bad conduct, and their pay, which had been 
immense, was stopjied. So now many of them went into the semce of the 
King of the Mogul-Pagan-Tartars in Persia to assist in his expeditions of 
conquest and plunder. Sometimes they would be hired by the Tartars 1 • 
fight, murder and ravage for them, and then by others to fight, murdei 
and plunder the Tartars. But they were generally defeated and returned 
to the islands in the Mediterranean sea, though many were scattered over 
Europe, and were considered a nuisance to the communities and govern- 
ments in and under which they lived. They were opposed to jjaying toll 
and taxes like other peojile, and wanted to hold courts and try oflfenders 
of their order. Like the Masons, Indians, Chinamen and Mormons of to- 
day they wanted a government of their own within the general govern- 
ment, and live in clannish tribal relations, while they filched a livehhood 
from others, and were therefore never good citizens of any country. Like 
the secret gangs of to-day, they were notorious for shielding their crimin- 
als against the government and real citizens of the country. 



658 The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 

They loved to ajje the Pagan desijots and preserve the lewd secret evils 
and myths and " mysteries " of pagan priests that they embraced while 
serving the Mogul and other Kings as venal mercenaries. 

' 'At the outset the Templars were supposed to be of blameles charac- 
ter, unmarried and to remain single the whole of their Hves. They were 
also to give up to the order all their property and to devote themselves 
exclusively to the service of God, the sick and the poor, and the defense 
of the Holy Land. Their food was originally bread and water, and their 
couch only a sack of straw, all of which, together with their garments, 
were regularly distributed among them by their Grand Master, to whom 
they were sworn to obey." 

It icas thus that the order icas richly endowed and jsaid, with revenues 
and estates by pious and enthusiastic peojale for the cause of chanty and 
rehgion. But when this was curtailed and their pay stojaped, they threw 
off their cloak of meekness and charity (and embraced lictganism). Indeed, 
they had done so before, and the loss of Jerusalem and the Holy Land 
was charged to their cowardice, jealousies and treachery ; after which their 
estates were taken by the government and devoted to charity and religion 
{tJie cause /or which they icere intended) by giving them to the poor. 

Later we find them fighting for the King of what now forms a part of 
Prussia. They were to get for their pay concessions of imj^ortant rights 
and privileges, and the possession of all the land they might conquer or 
rob from the owners during the war. In this way they possessed large 
districts along the Baltic Sea, governed by a " Landmaster. " 

" During these events the order had assumed a new form and charac- 
ter. Instead of the original name of brothers, the knights now addressed 
each other as master ; and, indeed, acted as such in the strictest sense of 
the term. They became imperious, insolent, haughty, tyrannical, des- 
potic, and led a dissipated, e\i\ and luxurious life at the exjiense of their 
Prussian subjects, who figured as the most wretched, oppressed and miser- 
able a-eatures in Europe," [and this is their disposition to-day] . "Nowhere 
was bondage carried to such an extent as under the rule of the Knights, 
who were intoxicated by war and j)lunder, and plunged in sensual ["mys- 
tic "] enjoyments and vice. Hence the continual insun-ections, devasta- 
tions of towns and lands, comj^laints and difficulties ; hence the hated de- 
crees of the Pope and Emperor ; the incessant disputes with the clergy 
and bishops of rank, which finally resulted in prostration and exhaustion 
of their strength and power." 

They were excommunicated by Pope John XXII. , and finally in 1809 
Napoleon abolished the order, and since then it has existed only in name. 

* * 

The Knights that settled on the islands of the Mediten-anean Sea a]?- 
pear to have engaged successfully in piracy, for examjile : "They found 
Malta a poor, naked, arid rock, with neither river, rivulet or spring ; in 
summer it was intolerably hot, with not a tree to relieve the eye." Yet, 



The Peactical Workings op Masonry, etc. 559 

■without producing anything, when they were driven oflf and exterminated 

for their crimes, "it was an island of palaces." 

* * 

* 

" Cruelty of Knights." — In the mediaeval history of Europe, says J. A. 
Farrar, in the so-called times of chivalry, a far worse spirit prevailed with 
regard to the treatment of captives. Knight Godfrey of Bouillon, one of 
the brightest memories of chivalry, was responsible for the promiscuous 
slaughter of three days which the crusaders exacted for the six weeks 
siege which it cost them to take Jerusalem (1099). They had 1190 Swabian 
prisoners delivered to the executioner at Milan, or shot from military 
engines. 

Charles of Anjou reserved many ^jrisoners taken at the battle of 
Benventune to be killed as criminals on his entrance into Xajiles. When 
they took the castle Pesquiere from the Venetians, they slew all but three 
who surrendered to the jjleasure of the King ; and Louis XII. , who is 
counted for a humane monarch, though his victims offered 100,000 ducats 
for their lives, swore that he would neither eat nor drink till they were 
hanged. 

When the town of Rouen siu-rendered to Henry V. , of England, the 
latter stijpulated for three of the citizens to be left to his disposal, of whom 
two purchased their lives and the third was beheaded (1419). When the 
same King the year following was besieging the castle of Monterau, he 
sent some twenty jirisoners to treat with the Governor for a suiTender ; 
but when the Governor refused even to save their lives, and when, after a 
fearful leave-taking with their wives and relatives, they had been escorted 
back to the English anny, the Knight King of England ordered a gallows 
to be erected, and had them all hanged. 

When the EngUsh took the castle of Rougemont by storm and some 
sixty of its defenders alive, -w-ith the loss of only one EngHshman, Knight 
Henry Y., in revenge for his death, caused all the prisoners to be drowned 
in the Loire. 

When Meaux sun-endered to the same King, it was stipulated that six 
of its bravest defenders should be delivered up to justice, four of whom 
were beheaded at Paris, and its commander at once hung to a tree outside 
the walls of the city. 

Take for another example, Richard Coeur de Lion. He is the ideal 
knight-errant of every school-boy and school-gu-1 — the darling of romance. 
He was in jioint of fact an unmitigated ruffian, and, incredible as it may 
appear, a cannibal. One day, under the walls of Acre, being convalescent 
he had a great desire for some pork, and no pork was to be had. They 
accordingly killed for him a young Saracen, plumj) and tender, cooked 
and salted him, and the Knight King ate him and found him very good. 

Thereupon he desired to see the head of the jjig. The cook, in some 
trepidation, brought him in. Knight Richard laughed heartily, and ob- 
served that the army had nothing to fear from famine, having such excel- 
lent provisions in store. 



560 The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 

Shortly after the town was taken, and Saladin's ambassadors came to 
sue for pardon for the prisoners. The High Grand Knight King ordered 
thirty of the most noble of them to be beheaded and the heads to be boiled 
and cooked. This accomi3Hshed, the heads were labelled with the names 
of the dead men and served up to the Saracen ambassadoi"s. 

In their i^resence the Very Worthy Grand High Chief Knight Eichard 
ate a Ukely looking head with much relish, and bade them tell Saladin 
how the "Christians " made war. 

He then ordered sixty thousand helpless prisoners to be led out into 
a plain, where they were all ruthlessly butchered. "'"When he took a 
town it was his habit to murder everybody, women and children included. " 

"He made an eflfort to sell the City of Loudon and all it contained to 
the Jews, and missed no opportunity of jjlundering and oppressing his 
English subjects, for whom he had precisely the same sort of regard as the 
lion for his prey." 

"All this is well known to historians; yet the youths of the country 
are taught in school and college by these latter day Knight Templars [who 
lay the corner stones of our public buildings] to look up to this unalloyed 
villain as one of the glories of the English race and name." 

There were dark rumors and odious reports concerning the conduct of 
the Temjjlars, and finally (1307 — 8) those in France and England were, by 
the influence of the Christian Church (which had been their main siipport 
as a "charitable society") aiTested, and horrible charges made against 
them and "proven by the courts " to be true — many confessing to the same. 

" Though i^rofessing to be Christians, they were accused of worship- 
ing an idol, covered with an old skin, embalmed, ha^-ing the appearance 
of a poUshed oil cloth. In this idol, it was asserted, ' there were two car- 
buncles for eyes, bright as the brightness of heaven, and it is certain that 
all the hope of the Templars was i>laced in it. It was their sovereign God, 
and they trusted in it with all their heart.' " 

"They were accused of burning the bodies of deceased brethren and 
making the ashes into a powder, Avhich they administered to their younger 
brethren in their food and drink, to make them hold fast to their faith and 
idolatry ; of cooking and roasting infants and anointing their idols -n-ith the fat ; 
of celebrating hidden rites and mi/steries, to which young and tender vir- 
gins were introduced, and of a variety of abominations [pagan ' mi/ste7'ies,' 
indeed/] too homble to be named. 

That the Templars had a hollow place or cave in the earth [nowadays 
they use the upper story of a building] in which they had an image in the 
form of a man, which they had invested with the skin of a human body, 
and in which were inserted tAvo bright and glittering carbuncles in lieu of 
eyes. At this horrible statue they who craved to enter their damnable re- 
ligion were compelled to sacrifice; whom, before all ceremonies, they 
obhged to deny Jesus Christ and to foul the cross with theii* feet. 



The Practical "Workings of Masonry, etc. 561 

After tliey liad profaned the Holy object, iu whieli girls and boys, se- 
duced to be of their sect, assisted, they put out the lamps aud hghts they 
had iu the cave, aud if it happened that a Templar aud a girl had a child, 
they ranged themselves in a circle and threw the babe from hand to hand, 
until it died by violence. Being dead they roasted it (horrible act !) aud 
of its fat anointed the grand statue (idol)." 

Nearly all confessed their treason and crimes and were pardoned; but 
it is stated that "for the glory of God, the stability of the faith and of the 
Holy Church " 113 were executed. 

In the trial given them in England by the Church, the Pope said: "In 
truth, a long time ago there came to our ears a rumor that the Templars, 
though fighting ostensibly under the guise of religion for the acquisition, 
detention aud defence of the Holy Land, have hitherto been secretly hving 
in perfidous apostasy and in detestable, heretical dej^ravity, which we 
were unwilling to yield a ready belief to the accusation." But after in- 
vestigating the matter the Pope declared, in a paj^al bull, himself jserfect- 
ly convinced of the guilt of the order, and "solemnly denounces the 
penalty of excommunication against all jjersons of whatever rank, station 
or condition in life, whether clergy or laity, who should knowingly afford 
either pubhcly or privately assistance, counsel or kindness to the Templars, 
or should dare to shelter them, or give them countenance or protection; 
and also laying under interdict all cities, castles, lands aud places, which 
should harbor any of the members of the proscribed order." 

[This was a first-class boycot !] 

* * 

* 

The Templars were accused, and many of them confessed as follows, 
in brief : 

I. "That at their recej^tion into the Order, as soon as an opportunity 
occurred, they were induced or admonished by those who had received 
them within the bosom of the fraternity, to deny Christ, or Jesus, or the 
crucifixion, or at one time God, aud at another time the Blessed Yu-gin, 
and sometimes all the saints. 

5. That the receivers told and instructed those that were received that 
Christ was not the true God, or sometimes Jesus, or sometimes the person 
crucified. 

7. That they said he had not sufi'ered for the redemption of mankind, 
nor been crucified except for his own sins. 

9. That they made those they received into the Order spit upon the 
cross or the image of Christ. 

10. That they caused the cross itself to be trampled under foot. 

II. That the brethi-en themselves did trample on the same cross. 

14. That they AvorshipjDed a cat which was jilaced in the midst of the 
congregation. 

16. That they did not believe the sacrament of the Church. 

2-4. That it was believed and so it was told them that the Grand 
Master of the Order could absolve them from theu" sins. 

26. That the visitors could do so. 

26. That the Preceptors, of whom many were laymen, could do so. 

36. That the receptions of the brethren were made clandestinely. 

37. That none were present except the brothers of the said Order. 

36 



562 The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 

38. That for tliis reason there has for a long time been a vehement 
susijiciou against them. 

46. That the brothers themselves had idols in every province, -viz., 
heads, some of which had three faces, and some one, and some a man's 
skull. 

47. That they adored that idol, or those idols, especially in their great 
chapters or assembhes. 

48. That they worshipiaed them. 

49. As their God. 

50. As their Savionr. 

51. That some of them did so. 

52. That the greater part did. 

53. They said that those heads could save them. 

54. That they conld j^roduce riches. 

55. That they had given to the Order all its wealth. 

56. That they caused the earth to bring forth seed. 

57. That they made the trees to flourish. 

58. That they bound or touched the heads of the said idols with cords 
whercAvith they bound themselves about their shirt or next their skin. 

59. That at their reception, the aforesaid httle cord, or others of the 
same length were delivered to each of the brothers. 

60. That they did this in worship of their idols. 

61. That it was enjoined them to gird themselves with the said little 
cords as before mentioned, and continually to wear them. 

62. That the brethren of the Order were generally received in that 
manner. 

63. That they did these things out of devotion. 

64. That they did them everywhere. 

65. That the greater part did. That those who refused the things 
above mentioned at their recej^tion, or to observe them afterwards, were 
killed or cast into prison. [And twenty-one other charges of devilish and in- 
decent pagan " »ij/sto-zes. "] 

It was provided that the examination by tortui"e should be conducted 
without mutilation or disabling of any hmb, and without eflfusiou of blood. 
[This being more humane than the conduct of the masons of to-day towards 
their prisoners.] 

It ajjpears that the most of the Temjjlars confessed their sins and 
ajjostatized, and were reconciled to the church and State ; others — icith 
their indecent pagan "mysteries^' — united wdth the spurious masons [of 
'which is the masonry of to-day) while others were convicted and executed 
or imprisoned by the courts for their crimes, 1307 to 1320, and their ill- 
gotten i^roperty given to the jjoor. 

* * 

•X- 

Sometimes Knight Temj^lars were known as "Brazen Serpents ! " and 
— though a trooi) of soldiers, or human butchers, or a gang of 2^irates would 
have no use for the square, trowel, level and plumb — their emblems oi a 
brazen serpent, skull and crossbones, and dagger, and pagan dress, are 
truly emblematic of their character and conduct. 

* ^ * 

" Attempts have been made to incorporate the Knights into [real] 
masonry, and their cross has been adopted by some of the high degrees 



The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 563 

[of the spurious order] but history fails to show the slightest trace of any- 
actual connection between the orders." 

Templarism superseded all other forms of Knighthood. As the one 
sank into decay and became the bntt and ridicule of Cervantes and other 
authors, it was melted into the other, and these united with the speculative, 
anti-working, spurious masons, adopting it into their code of pagan doctrines 
and indecent, lewd ^^ mysteries'' and opening theii* own institutions to its 
numerous associations, they gained thereby an accession of power nearly 
equal to their own. 

And of such is the masonry, etc., of to-day ! 

Larousse furnishes another explanation of the strained connection be- 
tween the old and the new, and states that in the eighteenth century, cer- 
tain members of the masonic lodge took uji the idea of perpetuating the 
ancient order of Templars, and to this end affiliated themselves with several 
distinguished jjersonages who were imbued -with deistical ideas. 

Gradually the order lost its distinctive character and was melted into 
speculative [or spurious] masonry. The old order has passed away with 
the old ages that brought it into existence, but the old pagan fables and 
obscene, lewd " mysteries " are still cherished. 

* 

Masonry was largely a Jewish craft, and therefore could not be a Christ- 
ian order. 

And they (the Jews) scattered it through the countries of Europe and 
by the tmion of Templarism and sijurious masonry, found their best and 
congenial friends among the Temjjlars with their stock of pagan idolatry 
and "mysterious" polutions. And both being sly, heartless and grasjj- 
ing in the jjursuit of gain, without work or production. So that, although 
one boasts of ha\dng battled for the cross and the glory of Christ, and the 
other glories in having crucified Jesus on the cross, yet, this mongrel, 
kid-gloved-spurious-midnight. masonry and pagan-idolatrous-Templarism 
is such that they, the Tartar, the Chinaman, and the Mormon — in their 
sly greed, cruelty and clanishness — dwell and conspire together in unison 
and brotherly love against the Government that is not clanish, pagan and 
kingly enough for them, and against its full-fledged citizens and j^ro- 
ducers. 

Patriotism and religion, equal rights and pri\-ileges, level justice and 

charity to all, are discarded, spit upon and trampled in the mire of their 

black deceit, love of cruelty, gi-asping greed, and their hatred of the truth ! 

* * 

* 

" I am in the place where I am dem,anded of conscience to speak the truth 
and therefore the truth I speak, impugn it who so lists. " 

" I never coidd believe that providence had sent a few men into the 
world, ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and 
bridled to be ridden. " 



564 The Peactical "Workings of Masonry, etc. 

"They damped every jaleasure, every bliss destroyed, 
And nipped the budding blossom of my joy." 

" Many and sharp the num'rous ills 

Inwoven with otir frame ! 
More pointed still we make ourselves 

Begi-et, remorse, and shame : 
And man, whose heaven-erected face 

The smiles of love adorn, 
Man's inhumanity to man. 

Makes countless thousands mourn ! 

See yonder poor, o'er-labor'd "n'ight, 

So abject, mean and "\ile, 
Who begs a brother of the earth 

To give him leave to toil ; 
And see his lordly fellow-worm 

The poor petition spui-n, 
Unmindful, though a weeping wife 

And helpless oflf-springs mourn. 

If I'm designed yon lordling's slave — 

By nature's law designed — 
Why was an independent wish 

E'er i^lanted in my mind ? 
If not, why am I subject to 

His cruelty or scorn ? 

Or why has man the A^ill and jjower 

To make his fellow mourn ? " 

* 

Oath of a Candidate in the First Degree of Free-Masonky. 

From " The Mysteries of Free-Masonry," as written by Caj^tain William 

Morgan. By George B. Crafts, formerly Thrice Puissant 

Grand Master of Manitou Council, New York." 

" As soon as the candidate is placed in this position, the Worshipful 
Master approaches him, and says, 'Mr. A. B., you are now placed in a 
proper position to take upon you the solemn oath or obligation of an 
Entered AiJi^rentice Mason,* which I assure you is neither to aftect your 
religion nor politics. If you are willing to take it, repeat your name, and 
say after me : 

'I, A. B., of my own free will and accord, in presence of Almighty 
God, and this worshipful Lodge of Free and Accejited Masons, dedicated 
to God, and held forth to the lioly order of St. John, do hereby and here- 



* In many Lodges this is put in the form of a question thus : " Are you willing to take an 
obligation upon you that does not affect your politics or religion ?" Thei)romise " toconforui," 
made before entering the Lodge, the '• assurance that the oath is not to interfere with their 
political orreligious'principles," and the manner the obligation is administered, only two or 
three words being repeated at a time, couseijuently not fully undei stood, are among the reasons 
which have led many great and good men to take oaths incompatible with the laws of Gcd and 
our country. 



The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 565 

on most solemnly and sincerely jiromise and swear, that I \vill ahvajs hail, 
ever conceal, and never reveal any part or jjarts, art or arts, jjoint or i^oiuts 
of the secrets, arts and mysteries of ancient Free Masonry, which I have 
received, am abont to receive, or may hereafter be iustnacted in, to any 
l^erson or i)ersons in the known world, except it be a trne and lawfiil 
brother Mason, or within the body of a jiist and lawfully constituted 
Lodge of such, and not unto him, nor unto them whom I shall hear so to 
be, but unto him and them only whom I shall hnd so to be, after strict 
trial and due examination or lawful information. Furthermore, do I pro- 
mise and swear that I will not wiite, print, stamji, stain, hew, cut, carve, 
indent, paint, or engrave it on anything moveable or immovable, under the 
whole canopy of heaven, whereby, or whereon the least letter, figure, 
character, mark, stain, shadow, or resemblance of the same may become 
legible or intelligible to myself or any other person in the known world, 
whereby the secrets of Masonry may be unlawfully obtained through my 
unworthiness. To all which I do most solemnly and sincerely j^romise 
and swear, without the least equivocation, mental reservation, or self- 
evasion of mind in me whatever ; binding mj/self totder no less j)enaltii, than 
to hdve my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by the roots, and mu body 
buried in the rough sands of the sea at low water mai-fc, where the tide ebbs ana 
■flou-s twice in tirenty-four hours; so help me God, and keep me steadfast in 
the true performance of the same." 

Oath of the Second, ok Fellow Ckaft Mason's Dkgkee. 

"Brother, you are now placed in a proper position to take on you the 
solemn oath, or obhgation, of a Fellow Craft Mason, which I assure you, 
as before, is neither to aflect yoiir religion nor jjohtics; if you are willing 
to take it, repeat your name, and say after me :" — 

"I, A. B., of my own free ■will and accord, in the j^resence of Almighty 
God, and this Worshipful Lodge of Fellow Craft Masons, dedicated to 
God, and held forth to the holy order of St. John, do hereby and hereon 
most solemnly and sincerely jiromise and swear, in addition to my former 
obligation, that I vAW not give the degi-ee of a Fellow Craft Mason to any 
one of an inferior degree, nor to any other being in the known world, ex- 
cept it be to a trne and lawful brother, or brethren Fellow Craft Masons, 
or "wathm the body of a just and lawfully constituted Lodge of such; and 
not unto him nor unto them Avhom I shall hear so to be, but unto him and 
them only whom I shall find so to be, after strict trial and due examination, 
or lawful information. Furthermore, do I promise and swear, that I will 
not wrong this Lodge, nor a brother of this degree, to the value of two 
cents, knowingly, myself, nor sutler it to be done by others, if in my power 
to jirevent it. Fi;rtliermore, do I promise and swear, that I will sujjport 
the Constitution of the Grand Lodge of the United States, and of the Cirand 
Lodge of this State, under which this Lodge is held, and conform to all 
the by-laws, rules and regulations of this, or any other Lodge, of which I 
may at any time hereafter become a member, as far as in my 2't)wer. 
Furthermore, do I promise and swear, that I will ol )ey all regiilar signs 
and summons given, handed, sent, or thrown to me by the hand of a 
brother Fellow Craft Mason, or from the body of a just and lawfully con- 
stituted Lodge of such; pro^•ided it be within the length of my cable-tow, 
or a square and angle of my Avork. Furthermore, do I promise and swear, 
that I Avill be aiding and assisting all poor and penniless brethren Fellow 
Crafts, their widows and orphans, wheresoever disi)osed round the globe, 
they applying to me as such, as far as in my i>ower, Avithout injuring my- 
self or family. To all which I do most solemnly and sincerely promise and 
swear, without the least hesitation, mental reservation, or self-evasion of 



566 The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 



mind in me whatever; binding myself under no less jieualty than to have 
my left breast torn open, and my heart and vitals taken from thence, 
and thrown over my left shoulder, and carried into the valley of Je- 
hosaphat, there to iDecome a prey to the wild beasts of the fields, and 
vultures of the air, if ever I should prove ^\dlfully guilty of violating 
any part of this my solemn oath or obligation of a Fellow Craft Mason; 
so keep me God, and keep me steadfast in the due performance of the 

same." 

The Master then says, "Detach your hands, and kiss the book, 
which is the Holy Bible, t-sm^e." 

"Oath or Obligation of a Master Mason, 

which I assure you, as before, is neither to aflfect your religion nor 
politics. If you are willing to take it, repeat your name, and say after 

me:" — 

"I, A. B., of my own free will and accord, in the presence of Almighty 
God and the Worshipful Lodge of Master Masons, erected to God, and 
dedicated to the holy order of St. John, do hereby and hereon most 
solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, in addition to my former 
obhgations, that I will not give the degree of a Master Mason to any 

one of inferior degree, nor to any other being Furthermore, do I 

promise and swear, that I will not give the grand hailing sign of dis- 
tress, except I am in real distress, or for the benefit of the craft Avheu 
at work ; and should I ever see that sign given, or the word accom- 
panviug it, and the person who gave it appearing to be in distress, I 
will" fly to his relief at the risk of my life, should there be a greater 
probability of saving liis life than of losing my own. Furthermore, do 
I promise and swear that I will not wrong this Lodge, nor a brother 
of this degree, to the value of one cent, knowingly, myself, nor suffer 
it to be done by others, if in my power to prevent it. Furthermore, 
do I promise and swear, that I will not speak evil of a brother Master 
Mason, neither behind his back, nor before his face, but will apprise him 
of all approaching danger, if in my power. Furthermore, do I promise 
and swear that I will not violate the chastity of a Master Mason's wife, 
mother, sister, or daughter, I knowing them to be such, nor suffer it to be 
done by others, if in my power to prevent it. Furthermore do I promise 
and swear that I will support the constitution of the Grand Lodge of the 
State of , under which this Lodge is held, and conform to all the by- 
laws, rules and regulations of this, or any other Lodge of which I may, at 
any time hereafter, become a member. Furthermore, do I promise and 
swear, that I will ol)ey all regular signs, summons, or tokens, given, 
handed, sent, or thrown to me from the hand of a brother Master Mason, 
or from' the body of a just and lawfully constituted Lodge of such ; pro- 
vided it be within the length of my cable-tow. Furthermore, do I promise 
and swear that a Master Mason's secrets, given to me in charge as such, 
shall remain as secure and in^aolable in my breast as in his own, when 
communicated to me, murder and treason excepted ; and theij left to my 
own election. Furthermore, do I promise and swear that I will go on a 
Master Mason's errand, whenever required, even should I go barefoot and 
bareheaded, if within the length of my cable-tow.* Furthermore, do I 
promise and swear that I will always remember a brother Master Mason, 
when on my knees offering up my devotions to Almighty God. Further- 



*Literniy a rope several yards inlength. but myst.oaUy three mi es ^%l^^^l^ J^^^l 
Mason must t;., .... abrotlior Master Ma-ons er.an.l whenever requned tUe disauce of th.ee 
miles, shouhl he have to g . barefoot and b ireheaded. lu the degrees ol Knighthood the dis- 
tance is forty miles. 



The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 567 

more, do I iJi-omise and swear tliat I "will be aiding and assisting all poor 
indigent Master Masons, their wives and ori^baus, wheresoever disi^osed 
round the globe, as far as in my power, without injuring myself or family 
materially. Furthermore, do I promise and swear that if any part of this 
my solemn oath or obligation be omitted at this time, that I will hold my- 
self amenable thereto, whenever informed. To all of which I do most 
solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, A\-ith a fixed and steady pur- 
pose of mind in me, to keep and ijerform the same, binding myself under 
no less penalty than to have my body severed in two in the midst, and 
di\dded to the North and South, my bowels burnt to ashes in the centre, 
and the ashes scattered before the four winds of heaven, that there might 
not the least tract or trace of remembrance remain among men or Masons 
of so vile and perjured a wretch as I should be were I ever to jsrove wilful- 
ly guilty of -siolating any part of this my solemn oath or obligation of a 
Master Mason ; so help me God, and keep me steadfast in the due per- 
formance of the same." 

The Master then asks the candidate, "What do you most desire?" 
The candidate answers after his prompter, "More light." The bandage 
which was tied round his head in the i)reparatiou room, is, by one of the 
brethren, who stands behind him for that purpose, loosened and put over 
both eyes, and he is immediately brought to light, in the same manner as 
in the iJi'eceding degree, except three stamps on the floor, and three claps 
of the hands are given in this degree. On being brought to light, the 
Master says to the candidate, "You first discover, as before, three great 
lights in Masonry, by the assistance of three lesser, with this diti'erence, 
both points of tlie compass are elevated above the square, which denotes 
to you that you are about to receive all the light that can be conferred on 
you in a Mason's Lodge." The Master steps back from the candidate and 
says, "Brother, you now discover me as Master of this Lodge, approach- 
ing you from the East, under the sign and due-guard of a Master Mason." 
The sign is given by raising both hands and arms to the elbows jjerpen- 
dicularly, one on either side of the head, the elbows forming a square. 
The words accompanying this sign in case of distress, are, "O Lord my 
God, is there no help for the widow's son ! " 

Oath of a Mabk Master Mason. 

"I, A. B., of my own free will and accord, in jDresence of Almighty 
God, and this Eight Worshipful Lodge of Mark Master Masons, do hereby 
and hereon, in addition to my former obligations, most solemnly and sin- 
cerely promise and swear, that I will not give the degree of a Mark Master 
Mason to any one of inferior degree, nor to any other person in the known 
world. Furthermore, do I promise and swear, that I will support the 
constitution of the General Grand Royal Arch Chajiter of the United 
States of Ameiica, also the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of this State, umler 
which this Lodge is held, and conform to all the by-laws, rules and regu- 
lations of this or any other Lodge of Mark Master Masons, of which I may 
at any time hereafter become n member. Furthei'more, do I jiromise and 
swear, that I will obey all regular signs and summons given, handed, sent, 
or thrown to me from the hand of a brother Mark Master Mason, or from 
the body of a just and legally constituted Lodge of such, l3ro^^ded it be 
within the length of my cable-tow. Furthei'more, do I promise and swear, 
that I wiU not wrong this Lodge, or a brother of this degree, to the value 
of his wages, (or one penny) myself, knowingly, nor sutler it to be done by 
others, if in my power to prevent it. Furthermore, do I promise and swear 
that I will not sell, swap, barter, or exchange my mark, which I shall 
hereafter choose, nor send it a second time to jjledge until it is lawfully 



568 The Praciical Workings of Masonry, etc. 

redeemecl from the first. Furthermore, do I promise and swear, that I 
will receive a brother's mark when offered to me requesting a favor, and 
grant him his request, if in my power ; and if it is not m my power to 
grant his request, I will retiu-n him his mark with the value thereof, which 
is half a shekel of silver, or quarter of a dollar. To all of which I do most 
solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, with a fixed and steady pur- 
pose of mind in me,to keep and perform the same, binding myself under no 
less jjenalty, than to have my right ear smote off, that I may forever be 
uual)le to hear the word, and my light hand chopped off", as the penalty of 
au impostor, if I should ever prove wilfully guilty of violating any jjart of 
this my solemn oath, or obhgation, of a Mark Master Mason. So help me 
God, and make me steadfast to keep and perform the same." "Detach 
joiw hand and kiss the book." 

Oath of the Past Master's Degree. 

" The candidate kneels on both knees, lays both hands on the Holy 
Bible, square and compass, and takes the following oath, or obhgation : 

"I, A. B., of my own free will and accord, in jiresence of Almighty 
God, and this Worshipful Lodge of Past Master Masons, do hereby ancl 
hereon, most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, in addition to my 
former obligations, that I will not give the degree of Past Master Mason, 
or any of the secrets peiiainiug thereto, to any one of an inferior degree, 
nor to any ijerson in the known world. Furthermore, do I promise and 
swear, that I will obey all regular signs and summons, sent, thrown, 
handed or given from the hand of a brother of this degree, or from the 
body of a just and lawfully constituted Lodge of Past Masters, pro^-idedit 
be within the length of my cable-tow. Furthermore, do I promise and 
swear, that I will support the constitution of the General Grand Eoyal 
Ai-ch Chapter of the United States of America ; also, that of the Grand 

Chapter of the State of , under which this Lodge is held, and conform 

to all the by-laws, rxiles and regulations of this, or any other Lodge, of 
which I may at any time hereafter become a member, so far as in my 
power. Furthermore, do I promise and swear, that I will not assist, or be 
present at the conferring of this degree upon any person, who has not, to 
the best of my knowledge and belief, regularly received the degrees of 
Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, Master Mason, and Mark Master, or 
been elected Master of a regular Lodge of Master Masons. Furthermore, 
do I promise and swear, that I will aid and assist all poor and indigent 
Past Master Masons, their As-idows and orphans, wherever dispersed round 
the globe, they applying to me as such and finding them worthy, so far as 
in my power, without material injury to myself or family. Furthermore, 
do I promise and swear, that the secrets of a brother of this degi'ee, de- 
livered to me in charge as such, shall remain as secure and inviolable in 
my breast, as they were in his own, before communicated to me ; murder 
arid treason excepted, and those left to my own election. Furthermore, 
do I promise and swear, that I will not Avrong this Lodge, or a brother of 
this degree, to the value of one cent, knowingly, myself, nor suffer it to 
be done by others, if in my power to prevent it. All which, I do most 
solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, with a fi:xed and steady pur- 
pose of mind, to keep and perform the same ; binding myself under no 
less jienalty, than to have my tongiie split from tij) to root ; that I might 
forever thereafter, be unalile to pronounce the Avord, if ever I should 
prove wilfully guilty of violating any part of this, my solemn oath, or 
oblioation, of a Past Master Mason. So help me God, and make me 
steadfast to keep and perform the same." 



The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 569 



Oath of Most Excellent Mastek's Degkee. 

"I, A. B., of my own free will and accord, in presence of Almighty 
God, and this Lodge of Most Excellent Master Masons, do hereby and 
hereon, in addition to my former obligations, most solemnly and sincerely 
promise and swear, that I will not give the degree of the most Excellent 
Master to any of an inferior degi-ee, nor to any other person, or iiersons, 
in the known -world. Furthermore, do I jiromise and swear, that I will 
obey all regular signs and summons, given, handed, sent, or thrown to me 
from a brother of this degree, or from the body of a just and lawfully 
constituted Lodge of such, pro-snded it be within the length of my cable- 
tow, if in my power. Fm-thermore, do I j^romise and swear, that I will 
supjiort the constitution of the General Grand Eoyal Arch Chapter of the 
United States of America ; also, the Grand Eoyal Arch Chapter of the 
State of , under which this Lodge is held, and conform to all the by- 
laws, rules and regulations of this, or any other Lodge, of which I may, 
at any time hereafter, become a member. Furthermore, do I promise and 
swear, that I will aid and assist all poor and indigent brethren of this de- 
gree, their widows and orphans, wheresoever dispersed round the globe, 
as far as in my power, without injuiiug myself or family. Furthermore, 
do I promise and swear, that the secrets of a brother of this degi-ee, given 
to me in charge as such, and I knowing them to be such, shall remain as 
secret and in%-iolable in my breast as in his own, murder and ti'eason ex- 
cepted, and the same left to my own free aWU and choice. Furthermore, 
do I promise and swear, that I will not wrong this Lodge of Most Excel- 
lent Master Masons, nor a brother of this degree, to the value of anything, 
knowingly, myself, nor suffer it to be done by others, if in my power to 
prevent it ; but will give due and timely notice of all approaches of dan- 
ger, if in my power. Furthermore, do I promise and swear, that I will 
dispense hght and knowledge to all ignorant and uninformed brethren, at 
all times, as far as in my power, without material injury to myself or 
family. To all which, I do most solemnly swear, with a fixed and steady 
purpose of mind in me, to keep and perform the same, binding myself 
under no less penalty than to have my breast torn open, and my heart and 
vitals taken from thence, and exposed to rot on the dunghill, if ever I vio- 
late any jDai-t of this, my solemn oath, or obHgation, of a Most Excellent 
Master Mason : so help me God, and keep me steadfast in the diie per- 
formance of the same." "Detach your hands and kiss the book." 

Oath of the Eoyal Akch Degeee. 

. . " Furthermore, do I promise and swear, that I will not speak evil of a 
companion Eoyal Arch Mason, neither behind his back nor before his 
face, l)ut will apprise him of ai:)proaching danger, if in my power. Fiir- 
thermore, do I promise and swear, that I will not strike a companion Eoy- 
al Arch Mason in anger, so as to draw his blood. Furthermore, do I 
promise and swear, that I will suj^iiort the constitution of the General 
Grand Eoyal Arch Chai^ter of the United States of America ; also, the 
constitiition of the Grand Eoyal Arch Chapter of the State under which 
this Chajjter is held, and conform to all the by-laws, rules and regialations 
of this, or any other Chapter of which I may hereafter become a member. 
Furthermore, do I promise and swear, that I will obey all regular signs, 
summons, or tokens given, handed, sent, or thrown to me from the hand 
of a companion Eoyal Arch Mason, or from the body of a just and lawfully 
constituted Chapter of such, provided it be within the length of my cable- 
tow. Furthermore, do I promise and swear, tliat I will aid and assist a 
companion Eoyal Arch Mason, when engaged in any difficulty ; and es- 
pouse his cause, so far as to extricate him from the same, if in my power, 



570 The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 



whether he be right or wrong. Also, that I "will promote a companion 
Royal Arch Mason's pohtical preferment in preference to another of eqnal 
qiiahfications. * Furthermore, do I jjromise and swear, that a companion 
Royal Arch Mason's secrets, given me in charge as such, and I kno^nng 
them to be such, shall remain as secure and inviolable in my breast as in 
his own, murder and treason not excepted. f Tui-thermore, do I promise 
and swear, that I will be aiding and assisting all poor and indigent Royal 
Arch Masons, their widows and orphans, wherever dispersed around the 
globe, so far as is in my power, without matei-ial injury to myself or 
family. All which, I do most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, 
with a firm and steadfast resolution to perform the same, without any 
equivocation, mental reservation, or self-evasion of mind in me whatever ; 
binding myself under no less penalty than that of having my skull smote 
off, and my brains exi^osed to the scorching rays of the sun, should I ever 
knowingly, or wilfully, violate or transgress any part of tliis my solemn 
oath, or obligation, of a Royal Arch Mason. So help me God, and keep 
me steadfast in the performance of the same." 

The OBiiiGATiONS of Thrice Illxtstrated Knights of the Cross. 

Fi7-st Obligation. — You, Mr. , do now, by your honor, and in view 

of the power and union of the Thrice Illustrious Order of the Cross, now 
first made known to you, and in the dread presence of the Most Holy and 
Almighty God, solemnly and sincerely swear and declare, that, to the end 
of your hfe, you will not, either in consideration of gain, interest, or 
honor, nor with good or bad design, ever take any, the least, step or 
measure, or be insti'umental in any such object, to betray or communicate 
to any person, or being, or number of the same, in the known world, not 
thereto of cross and craft entitled, any secret or secrets, or ceremony or 
ceremonies, or any j^art thereof appertaining to the order and degree 
known among Masons as the Thiice Illustrious Order of the Cross. That 
you will not, at any time or times whatever, either now or hereafter, 
directly or indirectly, by letter, figure, or character, however or by who- 
ever made, ever communicate any of the information and secret mysteries 
heretofore alluded to. That you will never speak on or upon, or breathe 
high or low, any ceremony or secret appertaining thereto, out of Council, 
where there shall not be two or more Knights companions of the order 
present, besides yourself, and that in a safe and sure i^lace, whereby any 
opinion, even of the nature and general inincii^les of the institution, can be 
formed by any other person, be he Mason or otherwise, than a true Knight 
companion of the cross ; nothing herein going to interfere with the i)ru- 
dent practice of the duties enjoined by the order, or arrangement for their 
enfoj-cement. 

2. You further swear, that, should you know another to violate any 
essential part of this obhgation, you will use your most decided endeavors, 
by the blessing of God, to bring such jierson to the strictest and most con- 
dign punishment, agreeably to the rules and usages of our ancient fratern- 
ity ; and this by pointing him out to the world as an unworthy vagabond ; 
by opposing his interest, by deranging his business, by transferring liis 
character alter him wherever he may go, and by exposing him to the con- 
tempt of the whole fraternity and the world, but of our illustrious order 
more especially, during his Avhole natural life. 



* This clause Is somotlines made a distinct point in the obligation in the foUowlug form, 
viz : Furthermore, do I promise and swear, that I wlU vote tor a compaulou Royal Arch 
Mii.-on. before auy other of equal qualiflcations; aud in some Chapters, both are left out of 
the obllgatlou. 

t In some Chapters this is administered: "All the secrets of a companion without ex- 
cei>tiou " 



The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 571 

3. Should any Thrice Illustrious Knight or acting officer of any coun- 
cil which may have them in hantl, ever require your aid in any emergency 
in defence of the recovery of his said charge, you swear cheerfully to ex- 
ercise all assistance in his favor, Avhich the nature of the time and i)lace 
will admit even to the sacrifice of hfe, liberty, and projierty. To aU, and 
every jjart thereof, we then bind you, and by ancient usage you bind 
yourself, under the no less infamous penalty than dying the death of a 
traitor, by having a speai', or other sharp instrument, like as our divine 
Master, thrust in your left side. 

Part of Thibd Obligation of Knights of the Cross. 

8. I swear to venerate the mark as the wisdom and decree of Heaven, to unite our 
hands and hearts lu the work of the holy crusade, and as an encouragement to act with 
zeal and effl'.'acy ; and I swear to consider Its testimonies as the true and ouly proper test 
of an illustrious brother of the cross. 

i. I swear to wear the mark of this order, without any the least addition, exceit what 
I shall be legally entitlt^d to by induction, for ever, if not without the physical means of do- 
ing so, or it being contrary to propriety; and even then, if possible, to wear the Loly cross; 
and I swear to put a chief dependence for the said worthy and jilous objects therein. 

5. I sweir to put confidence unlimited in every lllustJ ions bi other of the cioss, as a 
true and worthy follower of the blessed Jesus, who has sought tbls land, not lor private 
good, but pity, and the glory of the religion of the Most High and Holy God. 

6. I swear never to permit my political priucli<les nor iiersonal Interest to come counter 
to his, if forbearance and brotherly kindness canoiieraie to prevent it; and never to meet 
him if I know it, in war or in peace, under such circumstances that I mny not, in justice to 
myself, my cross, and my country, wish him unqualified success; and if perchance It 
should happen without my knowledge, on being informed thereof, that I will use my best 
endeavors to satisfy him, even to the relinquishing my arms and purpose. I will never 
shed a brother's blood nor thwart his good fortune, knowing him to be such, nor see It done 
by others it in my power to prevent it. 

7. I swear to advance my brother's best Interest, by always supporting his military 
fame and political preferment in opposition to another; and by employing his arms or his 
aid in his voca,iiou, under all clrcumstancts where I shall not suffer more by so doing, than 
he, by my neglecting to do so, but this never to the sacrifice of any vital interest lu our holy 
reUglon, or in the welfare of my country. 

8. I swear to look on his enemies as my enemies, his friends as my friends, and stand 
forth to mete out tender kindness or vengeance accordingly; but never to intrude on his 
social or domestic relations to his hurt or dishonor by claiming his privileges, or by de- 
bauching or defaming his female relations or friends. 

9. I swear never to see Calmly nor without earnest desires and decided measures to 
prevent the ill-treatment, slander, or defamation, of any brother knight, Lor ever to view 
danger or the least shadow of injury about to fall on his head. 

11. I ."-wear to keep sacred my brother's sfcrets, both when delivered to me as such, 
and when the nature of the iuformatiouls such as to require secrecy for his welfare. 

12. I swear to hold myself bound to him. especially in affliction and adversity, to con- 
tribute to his necessities my prayeis, my iuflueuce, aul my purse. 

13. I swear to be under the control of my council, or, if belonging to none, to that 
which Is nearest to me, and never to demur to, or omplaln at, any decree concerning me, 
which my brethren, as a council, shall conceive me to deserve, and enforce on my head, to 
my huriJind dishonor. 

14. I swear to obey »■ 11 suTi mens sent from any council to me, or from nny M'st Illus- 
trious Knight, whether Illustrious Counsellor tr the time being, o- by induction and to be 
governed by the constitution, usages and customs of the order without vai iatlon or change. 

'I'o all this, and every part thereof, I do now, as before, by the honor and power of ilie 
mark, as by an honorable and awful oath, which conflrmeth all things In tha dread ju-e- 
sence of the Most Holy and Almighty God, solemnly and in truth, bin<l and obligate my 
soul ; and in the earthly penalties, to wit, that, for the violation of the least matter or par- 
ticle of any of the here taken obligations, I become the silent and mute subject of the dis- 
pleasure of the Illustrious uroer, and have their power and wrath turned on my head to 
my destruction and dishonor,which, like the nail of Joel, may be the sure end of an unworthy 
wret' h, by piercing my temples with a true sense of my inaratiiude — and for a breach of 
silence in case of such an unhappy event, that I shall die the infamous death of a traitoi, 
by havlLig a spear, or other sharp weapon, like as my Lord, thrust in my letl side- bearing 
testimony, even in <'eath, ot the power of the mark of the Holy and Illustrious Cross, before 
1. H. S, our Thrice Illustrious Counsellor In Heaven, the Grand Council of the good. To this 
I swear. 

* * 

The Eotal Secret, or Kadosh. 

InBtructlons for the leunlon of the brethren. Knights, Princes, and Commanders, of the 
Royal Secret or Kadosh, which really signifies, Holy brethren of all degrees separated. 

J re. lerlck III., King of Prussia, Grand Master and Commander in Chief, Sovereign of 
Sovereigns, with an army Cfimposod of the Knights, Princes of the Wblte and Black Eagle,, 
including Prussian, English ui.d French; likewise joined by 'he Knights Adepts of the sua 



572 The Pbactical "Workings of Masonry, etc. 



Princes of Llbanus or the Royal Axe, the Knights of the Rose Croix or St. Andrew, Knights 
of the East and West, the Princes of Jerusalem, Knights of the East or Rword, the Grand 
Elect Perfect and Sublime Masons, the Knights of the Royal Arch, (ninth Arch,) Sublime 
Knights Elected, &c., &c. 

The hour for the departure or march of the army is the fifth after the sett ing of the sun 
and is to be made known by the firing of five great guns in the following order (0)— (0 Oi 
—that is, with an interval between the first and second. The first rendezvous Is to be the 
port of Naples— from Naples to the port of Rhodes— from Rhodes to Cyprus and Malta, 
whence the whole naval force of all nations is to assemble. The second rendezvous is to be 
at Cyprus, &c. Ihe third rendezvous is to be at Jerusalem, where they will be joined by 
our faithful guardians. The watchwords for eveiy day of the week are as follows; and they 
are not to be changed but by express order from the King of Prussia : 

Protectors of Mas»nry. Prophets. 

Sunday, Cyrus, , . Ezekiel, 

Monday, Darius, j I 1 aniel, 

Tuesday, Xerxes, I \ Hahakkuk, 

Wednesday, Alexander, )- Answer, -( Zephanlah, 
Thursday. Philadelphus, 



Friday, Herod, i f Zacharlan, 

Saturday, Hezekiah, -^ ^ Malachi, 

Sign.— 'Place the right hand on the heart; extend it forward, the palm downward ; let It 
fall by the right tide. Sacred words.— Those of the Carpet, which are t') be read backward 
round the circle from right to left, thus:— One says "Salix," to which the other repli'^s 
"Noni;" both then repeat (by letters) the word " Tengu." Pass-ioords.— " Phual Kol," 
which signifies " separated ;" "Pharas Kol," which signifies " reunited ;" "Nekam Makah," 
which signifies "to avenge;" each then letters the word "Shaddai." which signifies 
"Omnipotent." 

aiarge addressed to the Candidate.— Uy dear brother :— The Saracens having taken possession 
of the Holy Land, those who were engaged in the Crusades not being able to expel them, 
agreed with Godfrey de Bouillon the conductor and chief of the Crusaders, to veil the mys- 
teries of religion under emblems, by which they would be able to maintain the devotion of 
thesoldier, and protect themselves from the incursion of those who were their enemies, 
after the example of the Scriptures, the style of which is figurative . Those zealous brethren 
chose Solomon's temple for their model. This building has strong allusions to the Christian 
church. Since that period they (Masons) have been known by the name of Master Architect; 
and they have employed themselves in Improving the law of that admirable Master. From 
hence it appears th.at the mysteries of the craft are the mysteries of (pagan] religion. Those 
brethren were careful not to entrust tli is important secret to any whose discretion they had 
not proved. For this reason they invented different degrees to try those who entered among 
them; and only gave them symbolical secrets, without explanation, to prevent treachery, 
and to make themselves known only to each other. For this purpose it was resolved to use 
different signs, words, and tokens, in every degree, by which they would be secured against 
cowans and Saracens. The different degrees were fixed first to the number of seven by the 
example of the Grand Architect of the Universe, who built all things in six days and rested 
on the seventh. This is distinguished by seven points of recejition in the Master's degree. 
Enoch employed six days to construct the arches, and on the seventh, having deposited the 
secret treasure in the lowest arch, was translated to the abodes of the blessed. Solomon 
employed six years in constructing his tern pie; and celebrated its dedication on the seventh, 
witf all the solemnity worthy of the divinity himself. This sacred edifice we choose to 
make the basis of figurative Masonry. In the first degree are three symbols to be applied. 
First, the first of the creation, which was only chaos, is figured by the candidate's ciming 
out of the black chamber, neither naked nor clothed, depr ived. *c. ; and his suffering the 
painful trial at his reception, &c. The candidate sees nothing before he is brought to light 
and his powers of imagination relative to what he has to go through are suspended, which 
alludes to tho figure of the creation of that vast luminous body confused among the other 
parts of creation before it was extracted from darkness and fixed by the Almighty fiat. 
Secondly the candl<lato approaches the footstool of the Master, and there renounces all 
cowans; he promises to subdue his passions, by which means he is united to virtue, and 
by his regularity of life, demonstrates what he proposes. This is figured to him by the steps 
that he takes in approaching the altar; the symbolic meaning of which is the separation of 
the firmament from the earth and water on the second day of creation. (The charge pro- 
ceeds by giving a figurative interpretation of the ceremonies, &c., of the first and second 
part of the third degree which I pass over as not interesting to my readers, and commence 
with an interpretation which will be as novel to the Craft of the lower grades as to the 
cowans, or non-initiated.) ^ , , . ., 

In the Master's degree Is represented the assassination of Hiram by false brethren. 
This ought to put us in mind of the fate of Adam, occasioned by perverseuess in his dis- 
obeying his great and awful Creator. The symbolic mystery of the death of Hiram AbiiT re- 
presents to us that of the Messiah; for the three blows which were given to Hiram Ablff, at 
the three gates of tlie temple, allude to tho throe iiolnts of condemnation against (-hrist, at 
the High Priest's Caiphas, Herod and Pilate. It was from the last that he was led to that 
most violent and excruciating death. The said three blows with the square, guage, and 
gavol, are symbols of tho blow on the cheek, tho flagellation, and the crown or thorns. 'I he 
brethren assembled around the tomb of Hiram, is a representation of the <lisciples lament- 
ing tho death of Christ on the cross. The Master's word, which is said to be lost, since the 
death o£ Illram AbllT, is the same that Christ pronounced on the cross, and which tlie Jews 
did notcomprohoud, "Ell, Eli, lamasabacthani," " myGod, my God, why hast thou for- 



The Practical "Workings of Masonry, etc. 573 



saken me ! have iiity on aud forgive my enemies" — Instead of which words were substituted 
M. B. N. I llaebe-uac,) which, in Arabian, signifies, "The son of tlie widow is dead." The 
false brethren represent Judas Iscarioc, who sold Christ. The red collar worn by the Grand 
Elect Perfect and Sublime Masons, calls to remembrance the blood of Christ. The sprig of 
cassia Is the figure ol the cross, because of this wood was the cross made. The captivity of 
the Grand Elect and Sublime Masons, (1. e. by the Chaldeans,) shows us the persecution of 
the Christian religion under the Roman emperors, and Its liberty under Constantine the 
Great. It al^o calls to our remembrance the persecution of the Templars, aud the situation 
of Jacques L»e Molay, who, lying in Irons nearly seven years, at tlie end of which our worthy 
Grand Master was burnt alive with his four comi)anions, on the eleventh of March, 1314, 
creating pity and tears in the people, who saw him die with firmness aud heroic constancy, 
sealing his iunocenoe with his blood. My dear brother. In passing to the degree of Perfect 
Master, in which you shed tears at the tomb of Hiram AblCf, aud In some other degrees has 
not your heart been led to revenge? Has not the crime of Jubelum Akirop been representi-i; 
in the most hide )us light ?— Would it be unjust to compare the conduct of Philip the Fairto 
his, and the infamous accusers of the Templars, to the two rufQans who were accomplices 
with Akirop? 1)0 they not kindle in your heart an equal aversion? '1 he different stages 
you have traveled, and the time you have taken in learning these historical events, no 
doubt, will lead you to make the proper applications; and by the degree of Master Klect 
and Kadosh, you are properly disposed to fulfil all your engagements, aud to bear an im- 
placable hatred to the Knights of Malta, and to avenge the death of Jacques Do Molay. 
Your extensive acquaintance with symbolic Masonrj', which you have attained by your dis- 
cretion, leaves you nothing more to desire here. You see, my dear brother, how, and by 
whom. Masonry has come to us. You are to endeavor by every 3>ist means to regain our 
rights and to remember that we are joined by a society of men, whose courage, merit and 
good conduct, hold out to us that rank that birth alone gave to our ancestors. You are now 
on the same level with them. Avoid every evil by keeping your obligations, and carefully 
conceal from the vulgar what you are, and wait that happy moment when we all shall be 
reunited under the same Sovereign in the mansions of eternal bliss. Lot ua imitate the 
example of our Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, who to the end put his hope In God, and 
at his last dying moments ended his life saying, " Spes mea in Deo est !" 

Obligation.— 1 do, of my own free will and accord, in the presence of the Grand Architect 
of the Universe, aud this consistory of Sovereign Princes of the Royal Secret, or Knights of 
St. Andrew, faithful guardians of the faithful treasure; most solemnly vow and swear, under 
all the dlflferent penaltlts of my former obligations, that I vrtll never directly or indirectly 
reveal or make known to any per-on or persons whatsoever, any or the le st part of this 
Royal de^ ree, unless to one duly qualified in the body of a regularly constituted Consistory 
of the same, or to him or them whom I shall find such after strict and due trial. I further- 
more vuw and swear, undf r the above penalties, to always abide and regulate myself agree- 
ably to the statutes and regulations now before me ; and when In a Consistory to behave and 
demean myself as one worthy of being honored with so high a degree, that no part of my 
conduct may in the least reflect discredit on the Royal Consistory, or ditgrace myself. So 
may God maintain mo in equity and justice! Amenl Am3nl Amen! Amen! 

N'ow cannot anybody see that a person tender any such supreme obligation 
to his clan, order, or gang, ?s unfit to hold any public office ! And that 
the further he is advanced in masonry the more dangerous he is? 



And such as this are its Fruits. 

"Besides tlie boues discoTered at Blue iMonutaiu, as detailed else- 
where in these columns, we are informed that a lot were also found above 
Pendleton, a short time ago. Many a poor devil has been Joiocked on th- 
head, in this country, and then stowed away under ground, without anyboi/y 
beinq the wiser." 

* 

A Chapter in American Politics. 

From the Leaders of the Past, to those of the Present. 

George Washington's Farewell Address. — "The very idea of the power 
and the nght of the people to establish government pre-sujiiJoses the duty 
of every indi\-idi;al to obey the establi.shed government. AH obstructions 
to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under 
whatever j^lausible character, with the real design to direct, control, 
counteract, or awe the regular deliberation aud action of the constituted 
authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal 
tendencv." 



574 The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 



Thaddens Stprens : "By FreemasoDrr, trial by jury is transformed 
into an engine of despotism and Masonic fraud." 

Edirnrd Evrett : "A secret society so widely diffused and connected 
as this puts a vast power, capable of the most dangerous abuse, into bands 
irresponsible to the public." 

Oil ipf Juf^tice Jolin Marshall: "The institution of masonry ought to 
be abandoned as one capable of much e\\\ and incapable of producing any 
good which might not be effected by safe and open means." 

Charles Sumner : "I find two i^owers here in Washington in harmony, 
and both are antagonistieal to our free institutions, and tend to centraliza- 
tion and anar^.hy — Freemasonry and slavery ; and they must both be de- 
stroyed if our country is to be the home of the free, as our ancestors de- 
signed it." 

Thiirlow Weed: "I now look back through an interval of fifty-six 
years with a conscious sense of having been governed through the Anti- 
masonic excitement by a sincere desire, first to vindicate the violated laws 
of my country, and next to arrest the great i^ower and dangerous influ- 
ences of secret societies." 

William H. Seward: "Before I would place my hand between the 
hands of other men in a secret lodge, order, class, or council, and, bending 
on my knee before them, enter into combination with them for any object, 
personal or jjolitical, good or bad, I would pray to God that that hand 
and that knee might be paralyzed, and that I might become an object of 
pity and even the mockery of my fellow-men." 

Wendell Phillips: " History shows them perverting justice, stopping 
at no crime to protect and conceal their mummeries ; controlling politics 
for selfish and personal ends, and interfering with great danger in national 
emergencies. Every good citizen should make war on all secret societies, 
and give himself no rest until they are forbidden by law and rooted out of 
existence.'' 

Georqe Washington, to friends in 1794, quoted by Myron Holley : " The 
real people occasionally assembled in order to express their sentiments on 
jjolitical sentiments, ought never to be confounded with permanent, selt- 
appointed societies, usurping the right to control constituted authorities, 
and to dictate to public opinion. While the former was entitled to re- 
spect, the latter was incompatible with all government, and must either 
sink into general dis-esteem, or finally overturn the established order of 
things." 

General U. S. Grant: "All secret, oath-bound political parties are 
dangerous to any nation, no matter how pure or how patriotic the motives 
and principles which first bring them together." 

President Millard Filmore, J. G. Spencer, and others : "The Masonic 
fraternity tramples upon our rights, defeats the administration of justice, 
and bids defiance to every government w'hich it cannot control." 

John Qui ncif Adams : "I am prepared to complete the demonstration 
before God and man, that the Masonic oaths, obhgations and penalties 
cannot by any jiossibility be reconciled to the laws of morality, of Christ- 
ianity, or of the land." 

Disraeli, Lord , Beaconsfield : "In conducting the governments of the 
world there are not only sovereigns and ministers, but secret orders to be 
considered, which have agents everywhere — reckless agents, who counte- 
nance assassination, and if necessary can j^roduce a massacre." 

^1. M. Sulliran, Irish Leader : " I had not studied in vain the secret, 
oath-bound associations. I regarded them with horror. I knew all that 
could be said as to their advantages in revolutionizing a country, but even 



1 



The PiiACTic.\L Workings of Masonry, etc. 575 



in the firmest and best of bauds thev had a direct tendency to demoraliza- 
tion and are often on the whole more perilous to society than open ty- 
ranny. " 

Hon. Edward Blake, leader in Canadian Parliament, March, 1884: 
"I am not in favor of State recognition of any secret societies. I have 
never joined one, though many of my best friends are members of secret 
societies. But I beheve the tendency of secrecy itself to be injurious. I 
believe that it brings with it the possibihty of e\-il; I believe that it involves 
a certain amount of sacrifice of individuality and iudeiDendence, and "-ives 

very great facilities for the misleading of members by designing leadei-.s 

very great and mischievous facilities for that purpose. I beUeve that a 
great deal of the trouble, social and pohtical, that has occurred in those 
countries [Europe and America] is due to secret societies. " 

Genend Washington opposed to Secret Societies : This is a republication 
of Governor Joseph Eitner's " Vindication of General Washington from the 
Stigma of Adherence to Secret Societies,''' communicated to the House of 
Representatives of Pennsylvania, March 8th, 1837, at their special request. 
To this is added the fact that three high Masons were the only persons who 

opjiosed a vote of thanks to Washington on his retirement to j^rivate life 

undoubtedly because they considered him a seceding Freemason. Ten 
cents each ; per dozen, 75 cents. — American Anti-secrecy League, 221 West 
Madison Street, Chicago. 

* * 

* 

Eae says : "It was difficult to believe that they were simple citizens 
of the rejJubHc, so grand was their appearance, and so proud did they 
seem of their new clothes. As a riile, there is no more soberly dressed 
l^erson than a citizen of the United States. A j^aterual Congress has for- 
bidden a ci^-ihuu to indulge in the vanity known as court costume, and has 
enjoined that when he attends a foreign court he shall wear ordinary even- 
ing dress. No restriction, however, is put uijon the citizen donuiiig anv 
kind of military uniform he pleases, and this is said to be one of the 
reasons why the order of Knights Temj^lar is attractive and popular in the 
United States. Its members have the further gratification of reading 
their names, with handles to them, in the newspapers ; and when plain 
Brown, Jones, and Robinson see themselves in jjrint as Sir John Brown, 
Sir Thomas Jones, Sir Josej^h Robinson, they may experience the satis- 
faction of men who have made their mark. 

Till I beheld the Knights Templar, I had never realized the effect 
produced by entire regiments clad in the uniforms of general officers of 
the Grand Duchy of Gerolstein. With cocked hats adorned with feathers 
ui)on their heads, embroidered trousers upon their leg."*, tunics round their 
bodies, their breasts being as thickly covered with ribbons and medals as 
the breasts of ofiicers in the service of the Prince of Monaco, and with 
swords in their hands resembling the toy swords of children, these Sir 
Knights appeared to the simple-minded a splendid spectacle, and to the 
critic a set of guys." 

What aee Highbinders ? 

"The bloody conflict lately enacted between rival highbinder societies 
in this city, resulting in the death of three Chinamen and the serious 
wounding of two more, has given rise to considerable discussion as to who 
the highbinders are, what they are, and the best methods to be emijloyed 
to break up theii' organizations, and by that to put an end to their nefari- 
ous jjractices. 

The term highbinder really has no place in the English language. The 
dictionary and encyclopedia both fail to recognize it. It is a term like 



576 The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 

many others iu tlie English language, colloqiiialized, and has acquired a 
standing through custom and usage. It is a conventional term, the same 
as "hobo," "hoodlum," and many others that have acquired a siguiii- 
cance thi-ough a specific designation of some peculiar attribute of a general 
class. 

As near as can be learned, the term first came into practice on this 
coast some fifteen or twenty years ago. It was applied to those contend- 
ing factions among the Chinese demzens of San Francisco who were known 
to make a li\dng off the earnings of others, generally from the fruits of 
illegitimate business. Just how the term originated is not known. The 
business of levying on the fruits of others' labor was done under a guise 
of gi'\'ing protection and encouraging immunity from punishment. These 
Mongolian vampires, who, when organized, corresponded in a certain 
sense to the corriii^t pohtical cHques of this country, were designated as 
highbinders. Bulldozing is the fundamental essence and life principle of 
both organizations. Chinese highbinders are in reality a modified species 
of i3ii*ates. Instead, however, of asserting their supremacy, as do the 
jjirates on the open seas, in ojjen conflict, they show theii" prowess in cun- 
ning deception, bulldozing, intimidations and threats." 

HIGHBINDEES IN CHES-A. 

In China the class of people answering to organizations of Highbind- 
ers in this country are known by the name of Hung Tow or Tung Ho. 
They are not legal organizations, but are under the ban of the govern- 
ment. If a higlibinder organization is discovered death stares the mem- 
bers in the face. The Chinese authorities are very strict, and under no 
consideration are secret societies of any kind allowed to exist. Discovery 
is met with the extreme penalty of the law — death. An organization of 
the nature of highbinders is looked upon as a consjjii-acy, and death is 
the i^eualty of those gathered in secret conclave. 

In Cliina, as in this country, the highbinders hold the same relations 
to society. There are at least 200 Kwong Hong or family branches in 
China. 'These branches occassionally organize highbinder societies be- 
tween themselves. Every one is ehgible to join any of these societies. 
All that is needed is for a person to have the necessary instincts of a scoun- 
drel and he is at once received into full fellowshii^ into any of their 
orders. These societies, whenever for any reason they are not discovered, 
live off the community, the same as a [Mason] does in this country. They 
live by bulldozing and by exacting subsidies under threats. They live by- 
smuggling, stealing, and even killing for pay. They live by all means 
that are illegal, and no means that are just. 

HOW SUPPRESSED. 

There are no longer many highbinder societies in China, while out- 
bursts of riots between rival organizations are of very rare occurrence. 
The reason is the extreme severity used in punishing those who are appre- 
hended. If the existence of a highbinder society is made known to the 
authorities, the ringleaders are generally beheaded. 

In China a man may smuggle and his oj^ium is confiscated ; he may 
steal and he is publicly flogged. He may at times even commit more 
serious crimes and escape with comparatively hght i)unishment. But let 
a man conduct a secret meeting and he is denied even a iiveUminary exam- 
ination before a mandarin. He is beheaded without further ado. If tlie 
guilty are not found out, the innocent are executed with them, for the guilt 
is atoned for at any price, though innocent lives be sacrificed. The end is 
calculated to justify the means. Generally, however, the names of the 



The Practical "Woekings of Masonry, etc. 577 

guilty parties are given up without interference. If for any reason the 
guilty parties in any crime committed are not given up, the authorities 
arrest one prominent member of each company, and, as a general rule, 
the desii-ed information is soon forthcoming. It" these leaders still refuse 
to disclose the names of the guilty jjarties in a transaction, the law meets 
its end by executing those leaders who are arrested. 

As a matter of fact, there are but few riots now occasioned in China 
thi-ough the existence of highbinder societies. This peaceable, quiet state 
of atiairs in a country which numbers her population by the millions, 
must be attributed to the stringent laws against carrying weajDous and 
against aiding or abetting in holding a meeting of a highbinder or other 
secret society. 

HIGHBEST>EKS IN THIS COUNTRY. 

When the Chinamen came to this country many of their passions 
supi^ressed in their own flowery kingdom, found an oi^iiortunity for ex- 
pansion. This was a free country, and the laws were made for the gov- 
ernment of an enlightened civihzation. The Chinese had been ruled with 
an iron hand, and what wonder is there that they should tend towards 
extremes when this restraint is removed ? Our laws in the United States 
were made to govern citizens of this country, and citizens of this country 
are supposed to have reached a stage in civilization where democratic laws 
are sufficient for them. The Chinese coming here are evidently not made 
for our civihzation, for they abuse its pri\T.leges. The laws are made for 
enHghtened people, and cannot fit a semi-barbaric contingencv. If a for- 
eign element cannot be assimilated into the body poUtic of the country 
and adopt its rules and regulations, it becomes very endent that that for- 
eign element cannot exist in the country unless there be particular laws 
enacted to govern the people somewhat according to theii* requirements. 
This is exactly the reason highbinder societies have flourished in this 
coimtry. By the silence and indifterence of the authorities here the 
Chinese highbinder societies have come to the conclusion that if they are 
not exactly coui'ted, they are at least tolerated and aiJi^roved. 

MIXED UP AS USUAIi. 

As is always the case in rows among the Chinese it is very difficult 
to get any information as to the cause of the trouble. The statements of 
the class of Chinese who are mixed up in such affairs is not to be rehed 
on, and even the dying statement of one of these highbinders is as likely 
to be false as true. 

The leading Chinamen of this city are all very much wrought up over 
this conflict. None have any symiiathies Avith the murderers if they can 
be found out. 

" The laws in this country, " said one, "are altogether to lax for the 
Chinamen. This fight is a natural outcome of the leniencv shown the 
Chinese murderers in the coimty jail. The Chinamen have no fear for 
the law and think that they can buy their freedom if they have plenty of 
money. No such highbinder societies are allowed in China. If there are 
any secret organizations of any kind tliscovered in China thev are more 
summarily dealt with. If the English authorities find the'm out the 
Chinamen are either imprisoned for life or shot, and if the Chinese gov- 
ernment makes the discovery the Chinamen's heads are cut oS forthAnth. 
There is not even the formality of a trial given them." 

. . . .Another one said that the murderers of these Chinamen will never 

be found out unless one of the Chinese comiianies prosecute the case. 

"The Chinamen know Avho the guilty ones are, but will not tell," he said. 

" The city authorities ought to send eight or ten policemen to make a 

37 



578 The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 

thorough search of Chinatown. There are still quite a number of 
"wounded Chinamen hidden and if they are not soon hunted up they will 
either sneak out of town or get well without medical attendance. The 
city is not taking the right position in allowing the matter to rest as it now 
stands. The guilty parties should be ferretted out and if this is imiDOssi- 
ble, those who stand in with them should be hung with the susijected 
ones, in order to make an example of them if to no other end." 

A third Chinaman said that the Chinese societies can tell who every 
guilty party in this late bloody transaction is, and furthermore they can 
be made to tell if* the aiithonties go at them in the right way. "The 
Chinese are allowed too many liberties. All highbinder societies should be 
broken up, and the police authorities must be more stringent if the com- 
munity desires to have no recui'rence of such a bloody fight." 

" HIGHBIXDEK SOCIETIES MUST DISBAND. 

Mayor DeLashmutt and Chief of Police Parrish had a conference with 
the leading Chinese merchants, for the purpose of securing their assistance 
in bringing the guilty Chinese to justice, and to prevent a recurrence of 
such conflicts. As a result of this conference the Chinese business men 
and merchants will unite and give the authorities every assistance in their 
power to accomplish the work of bj;eaking up all highbinder societies. 
The name of every highbinder society with its location were given Chief 
Parrish and the war of extermination wall soon commence. The China- 
men are all agreed that active steps should be taken at once. Notices will 
be ijosted on every door of these highbinder headquarters ordering them 
to disband within five days. If this order is not obeyed within the speci- 
fied five days, if every sign is not taken down from their headquarters and 
every other evidence of the existence of these societies destroyed, the law 
will take its course. The pohce will commence to arrest every highbinder 
in the city. The names will be furnished by this protective organization 
of Chinese business men and there will thus be no chance for any to es- 
cape detection. 

The black list will be made out at once, and every highbinder will be 
placed behind prison bars. This course of action has received the sanc- 
tion of the leading Chinese merchants and there will be no difficulties en- 
countered in carrying it into execution." 



"As a reporter of The Oregonian was passing through the county jail 
yesterday, Mah Jim, the Chinaman under sentence of death for killing Ah 
Toy in the Chinese Free Mason's hall some six months ago, hailed him. 
Mah Jim began by saying that he was not guilty of kilUng Ah Toy, but 
was the victim of a conspiracy hatched by his enemies to get him out of 
the way. 

" Did you not serve a term in the penitentiary ? " asked the reporter. 

"Yes," said Jim. 

" How long were you there ? " 

"About six months," answered Jim. 

«' Well, how did it aU come about ? What was you sent up for ? " 

"For larceny. I worked for Quon Wo Wa, on Oak street, while they 
were sending gangs of Chinamen up on the railroad to Tom and Jim 
Filliken. You sabe ; some Chinamen can't talk English, and I talked for 
them and told them where to go. I was to get $2.50 a day, but as I didn't 
get my money I sued Lee Sang, of the Quon Wo Wa company, in Justice 
Greene's court, for .^170. At the same time a job was put up on me — that 
I stole some clothes — and I was sent up." 



i 



The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 579 

"What Tvas the job put up for ? " 

" Because I sued for the money." 

" And why do they accuse you of this murder ? " 

" When I got out I took the suit to the state circuit court and ob- 
tained a judgment for $75, but I didn't make anything as the lawyer took 
itaU." 

Mah Jim then went on to say that Lee Sang, the man he had sued, 
was all broke up, owed everybody, and he had been threatened, ijrovided he 
took legal recourse against him. "I belonged to the Chinese Free Masons 
for six or seven years. They are all the same as highbinders ; all like 
brothers together. If a man is killed and they don't want it known none 
of them will say a word about it. Mah Jim said two head men of the 
Masons and particular friends of the man against whom he prosecuted 
the suit, jjut uj) the job accusing him of being the murderer and that they 
agreed to pay Pow ChinWah.the principle witness against him, $50 to swear 
that he killed Ah Toy, $200 if he (Jim) was sent to the penitentiary, and 
$300 if he was hanged. Further, that everybody who knew him well 
had a good opinion of him, and that he had more friends among the white 
people than among his own countrymen." 



Highbinders in Los Angklos. 
Prizes set on the heads of two Chinamen and a White man. 

" If left to settle itseK Chinatown will undoubtedly solve the problem 
of its own existence without the aid of any boycott. The slumbering vol- 
cano of internecine strife occasionally emits its deadly odors. All is not 
unity, harmony and love within the Chinese camp. Its coohes belong to 
different companies, whose fierce struggle for supremacy and the hon's 
share of the wages of theu- slaves is a fit sample of the struggle of the sur- 
vival of the fittest. Each company takes care of the rehgion, social pleas- 
ures and physical comforts of its membei-s. Each company has its own 
joss house, its tan game and its highbinder society, which the Chinese call 
a ' Freemason lodge.' When the lynx-eyed highbinders of the Wong com- 
pany see the members of the Chung Wo Company robbing at a tan game 
some poor devil of a coolie fresh from a Washhouse or an orange orchard, 
they inform the officers, and the latter make a raid, and the Chung Wo 
men, if captiired, have to pay roundly for their fun. They then come 
back on to the Wong Company when they are fleecing a gi*een countryman, 
and so bad blood has been developed between the companies till every 
Chinaman goes armed with a revolver, which he is ready to draw and shoot 
on the slightest i^rovocation, as the row last night shows. The Wong and 
Chung Wo companies are ready to fight for the least cause now. This 
was the exact status before the big Chinese riot of 1871, when eighteen or 
more Chinamen were killed, and these are the same causes which led to 
that riot, by exciting the ira of the lower class of the Caucasians and 
Indians, who shed their blood. 

Last Sunday the highbinders of the Wong Company, on solemn con- 
clave, set prices on the heads of several Chinamen, including Ah Jim and 
another Chinaman, for $800 for each head. The price of $1,200 was set 
on the head of Charles Newberg, who inhabits Chinatown more or less, 
and who learned to speak the Chinese language in Hongkong, where he 
was bom, while his father was there in the merchandise business. This 
appalling state of affairs was revealed to the officers on last Monday, but 
they regarded it as a stupid tale till the events of last evening in the 
attempted assassination of Ah Jim on Negro alley confirmed the reports. 



580 The Pkactical Workings of Masoney, etc. 

During the attemjit of the officers to make a raid on a tan game on 
Negro alley, about 7 o'clock Tuesday evening, a shooting scrajje occurred 
in which several Chinamen were shot." 



" The police learned of th^miu'der; they could get nothing but the 
bare facts. Not one of the i^erjjetrators of the crime was caught, as no 
one would give any information for fear of incurring the revenge of the 
society. The same thing has occurred so frequently in this city that it 
is in the nature of a miracle Avhen crime in Chinatown is discovered 
and punished. 

Measures Against Highbindeks. 

Last Friday evening the Mayor and Chief of Police being informed 
that the highbinders' societies wei'e disposed to resist the order for clos- 
ing them, started out, and with the assistance of Officer Watson closed 
up nine of these rendezvous. The signs of the societies were torn down, 
and their emblematic ornaments, little josses, bowls of sandalwood and 
other implements Avith which they solemnize their secret obligations, 
were taken down and locked up. 

The mayor has further instructed Chief Parrish that this measure 
must 1)6 thoroughly jirosecuted. 

The mayor is thoroughly aroused in the matter, and has the active 
and earnest support of all the police force, and the apjiroval of not 
only the Avhites, but the better class of the Chinese merchants. The 
outlook is most encouraging for a complete break-up of this organized 
menace to good government. 

[Bui say, why not also break up the other masonic ^'menace to good gov- 
ernment ? "'\ 

CoiiORED Masons. 

"In California, as well as in every State in the union, the colored 
Masons are a separate and distinct organization from those of Caucasian 
origin. The sovereign grand lodge of California, Avliich recently held 
its session in Stockton, Avas Avithout a single white representative. Out- 
siders sometimes consider it rather singular that masonry, Avhich i)rofesses 
not to regard the outside qualifications of men, should be oi)posed to 
recognizing colored men as brothers. The reason for this, hoAvever, is 
found in the fact that the negroes secured their charter and ritual from 
England. On this account American lodges refuse to recognize them. 
In the South this alienation is carried to the extreme. During the war 
a Southern man's house was foraged by some Northern soldiers, among 
them being a sergeant, an ex-slave, and as black as midnight. The 
soldiers sUpi^ed a noose over the Southerner's head aud demanded to knoAV 
where he had hidden his silver and gold. He declined to teli. "I'll 
never tell," he said. They threw the rope over a limb, jerked him into 
the air and tied him up to die. Unable to sjaeak, he made a certain 
masonic sign aud the negro sergeant sprang foi'Avard and undid the 
rope. When the poAver of speech returned to the half-choked man he 
looked into the face of his deliverer, and still Avithout recognizing him 

niasonically, asked, Avith incredible astonishment : "What in the 

did you know about that sign ?" The ex-slaA'e ansAvered : "You need 
not hold masonic couA^erse Avitli me unless you so desire, but nothing 
can i)revent me from doing my duty to all Masons under the Sun." 

[They all affiliate, black, white, and yellow, and this icas one of the "■char- 
itable'' (?) brethren that would mia-der an outsider in cold blood /or a little 
money. ] 



The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 581 



An Addkess Issued by the Executive Committee of Farmers' Congress. 

"That all men aud women are equally endowed by their creator with 
the inalienable light to the jiossession and enjoyment of whatever wealth 
they produce. That to secure, among others, this right inviolate to all 
citizens, governments are rightfully established among men. That when 
governments, laws or systems become destructive to these rights or fail to 
secure them to the iieople it is their right and imjierative duty to them- 
selves and their posterity to alter and abolish such government, repeal 
such laws and destroy such systems. That the agiicultural masses of the 
United States have not for years been aud are not now secure in the 
possession aud enjoyment of the vast wealth which by unfaltering indiistry 
they have created. To prove these declarations let unimpeached statistical 

facts be siibmitted to your candid, considerate, unbiased judgment 

We have brought forth facts whiela show that the agricultural 

poinilation is rapidly and surely being reduced to abject serfdom. Facts 
which show that if we wish to be free, and the owners of free homes, there 
is now an imperious necessity demanding the organization of the agricul- 
tural masses, to defend for themselves, each other and their children the 
right to what they produce, the title to their homes, and the secure enjoy- 
ment of their firesides. • 

By order of the executive committee." — Oregon. 

From a President's Message. 

"The equal and exact justice of which we boast as the underlying 
principle of our institutions should not be confined to the relations of our 
citizens to each other. The government itself is under bond to the Ameri- 
can i^eople that in the exercise of its functions and powers it will deal with 
the body of our citizens in a manner scrupulously honest and fair, and 
absolutely just. It has agreed that American citizenship shall be the only 
credential necessary to justify the claim of equality before the law, and 
that no condition in life shall give rise to discrimination in the treatment 
of the people by this government. 

The citizen of our reiDublic, in its early days, rigidly insisted upon full 
compliance with the letter of this bond, and saw stretching out before him 

a clear field for individual endeavor Hundreds of private 

pension laws are aunually passed which are the sources of unjust discrimi- 
nation and popular demoralization. 

Appropriation bills for the support of the government are defaced by 
items and provisions to meet private ends, and it is freely asserted by re- 
sponsible and experienced parties that a bill appro lariating money for pub- 
he improvement would fail to meet with favor unless it contained more fcr 
local and private advantage than for public benefit." 

[Here follows an example in point: — ] 

"Captain John Mullan claims large sums as 'commissions' for collec- 
tion of claims for Oregon at Washington. Those claims were paid by 
authority of acts of Congress, directing the same to be done. How then 
could Captain Mullan have 'rendered services' in getting the money? 
Did he cause Congress to enact the laws and make the approi)riations for 
their payment ?" 

[What else was he employed for ? A masonic lobbyist can be trusted 

• "on the square" by his secret oath-bound brethren in office to divide the 

people's money. Do outsiders get i)rivate laws passed, and big i?ension8? 

They are an insolent, (lefiiiut,/'oreign, jyiiytin r/overnmeut within the repuhlif, 

supported by the government that they paralyze in any action against t]iem.\ 



582 The Peactical Workings of Masonry, etc. 

" Notwithstaudiug our Government is fouucled wpon the broadest 
principles of equality; that the first of the self-evideut truths enunciated in 
that Declaration upon which it rests affirms, that ' all men are created free 
and equal,' there immediately sprang up a party under the new Govern- 
ment which, if it did not precisely favor kingly rule, endeavored to build 
up and perpetuate a privileged class, with quite as marked characteristics 
as the dividing lines of caste under governments of hereditary rule. 

Should the humble Knight of Labor be censured because he belongs 
to a secret order which his friend of aristocratic associations declares jjoli- 
tical, when he, himself, (or rather his confederated friends) cross contimi- 
ally from one haven of safety to another by the mystic biidge of a society 
which 18 ?iot political ?" ' 

HoRKiBiiE Mormon Ckime. 

Salt Lake letter to St. Lotus " Republican." 

" One crime which was committed here only a short time ago, I must 
describe. Mrs. Maxwell came to Salt Lake City with her husband in 
18G9. Two years afterward her husband took another Avife, and one year 
subsequent he was married to a third. Mrs. Maxwell had two sons', re- 
spectively 14 and 16 years. Their father urged them to go thi-ough the 
Endowment House and become Mormons, bound by all the oaths of the 
Church. Mrs. Maxwell objected, and in order to prevail over her sons 
she told them the secrets of the Endowment House. The penalty for re- 
veaHng these secrets is dismemberment of the body, cutting of the throat 
and tearing out of the tongue. Mr. Maxwell overheard his wife, being in 
an adjoining room, and forth-\rith he informed the elders, who sent for the 
unfortunate woman and her two sons. They were taken into what is 
called the ' Dark jait, ' a blood-atoning room under Brigham Young's 
house. The woman was then stripped of all her clothing and then tied on 
the back to a large table. Six members of the priesthood then performed 
their damnable crime ; they first cut off their -s-ictim's tongue, and then 
cut her throat, after which her legs and arms were severed. The sons 
were compelled to stand by and A\-itness the dreadful slaughter of their 
mother. They were released and given twenty-four hours to get out of 
the Territory, which was then an imijossibihty. The sons went then to the 
house of a friend, to whom they related the butchery of their mother, and 
then getting a package of provisions started, but on the following morning 
were both dead. They had met the Dauites. One other case similar to 
the above occurred about five years ago in the City Hall. These are 
truths, and the lady to whom the sons told their story is willing to make 
iiiridavits to the facts if she can be guaranteed immunity from Mormon 
veageance. 

[That is viasoiiry ! — Mormon government and masonry are one and the 
same. ] 

"Skipped. — John Keluappil, who for some months past has occui>ied 
so prominent a place in the minds of so many of our citizens, and who 
made eucli a vacancy in their pockets, has skipped the meshes of the law, 
and left for parts unknown, and his ruddy countenance no longer gi-eets 
us from behind the bars at the jail. John was too big a thief, the grappling 
irons of the law were uot strong enough to hold him. His creditors had 
furnished him with too much with which to fight them. He laughed at 
their threats and defied them in every attemjit to punish him or recover a 
dollar of the stolen money. Having freed himself through the loseness of 
the law from eA'ery criminal charge^ against him, save one invohnng only a 
small amount, ujiou which he was hold to bail in tlie sum of $1,000, he 
.snn]>ly lay in jail awaiting his opportunity. On Saturday evening, the 



i 



The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 583 

steamer Wildwood liaving been chartered to come to tbi.s])ort after liimhe 
deposited the amouut of his bail, stepped aboard the sprightly craft and 
turned his back upon the tield of his conquest. Thus ends the story of 
this wholesale robbery, by which so many of our citizens have been made 
to suffer, and for which the law furnishes no remedy through the ordinary 
channels of justice." 

[It is masons in office that jiaralyzes the courts and does this prostitu- 
tion every day for their brethren. It w<is secret hretJtren that got the boat 
and helped hivi away.\ 

* 

"Thieves now work in gangs instead of comiJeting with each other, 
and, acting on the principle that union is strength, they take possession of 
districts and assert themselves with a confidence which completely cows 
the victims upon whom they prey. 

Masonry otherwise known as the gang or ring j^lan, has been in suc- 
cessful operation here for many years. It has been tried at Washington, 
and has been tried in the cities of New York, Brooklyn and Philadelphia, 
and in all the State capitals. Honest men should see to it that the co- 
operative stealing of this kind is i^revented, or, if committed, that the per- 
petrators are duly i^unished. " 

* 

''Dublin, November 21, 18S2. 
In the Joyce ti'ial [four or five men sentenced to hang] . . . .Judge 
Barry in passing sentence informed the ijrisoners that they furnished a 
terrilDle example which he hoped would sink deeply into the hearts of 
others of the consequences of joining a secret society. It was not improb- 
able, he said, that some of them had been teiTorized into joining the gang 
who murdered the Joyces, and had not taken an actual manual jjart in the 
massacre ; but persons joining an unlawful enterprise were responsible for 
the acts of all the parties thereto." 

* 
"It seems that Chicago Courts take very jilain and unexaggerated 
views of the law. In his charge to the jury, in the Anarchists' trial, the 
presiding Judge held that ' if violence for any unlawful object resulted in 
death, those who organized the violence are guilty of murder. ' In other 
words, those who employ dangerous methods are responsible for the result. " 

* * 

Secretism. The Masons with theii- degi-ee of apprentice, fellow-craft, 
and grand master, together with the whole brood of inferior orders, form 
the dry rot in our political body. They are an enemy to both Church and 
State. They are anti-Repubhcan and anti-Christian. Their ensnaring and 
blasphemous oaths forever proscribe them. — New York Witness. 

A Protest against Masonic Participation. 

"A printed protest of large proportions against i)ennitting Masonic 
societies to participate in the dedication of the Wasliington Monument 
next Saturday, has been received by the Congi-essional committee charged 
with arrangements. The signers claim to have 13,000 signatures. Protest- 
ants say that the Masonic order has no more right to such a distinction 
than the Hibernians or any other secret order. A stone sent by tJie Fope 
for the monument was, they say, broken u}) and thrown into the Potomac. 
"Why," they ask, "are CathoUcs snubbed and Free Masons honored ?" 
"Free Masonry," they say, "is of foreign bii*th, is entirely un-American 



584 The Pkactical Workings of Masonry, etc. 

and un-republican. Its public disijlays are jjompoiis and barbaric; its 
titles extravagant and lordly; its constitution desi^otic; its oath extra- 
judicial, -svliich Webster said should be sujipressed by law." They pray 
only that such ceremonies as are national in their scope and American in 
their character be permitted. The protest came too late for action by the 
committee. " 

Against Seceet Societies. 

"Newburg (N. T.), June 7th, 1887.— The Synod of the Reformed Pres- 
byterian Church of America to-day adopted resolutions declaring secret 
societies immoral, selfish and unjust, degrading and enslaving to the con- 
sciences of their members; that, in addition, many of theD\ are Christless, 
yet they counterfeit the worship of the church and obstruct her work and 
for that reason, as well as for the secrecy, the members of such societies 
ought not to be admitted to the church's membership, and the Synod en- 
joins the courts of the church to refuse admission to members of all secret 
orders and to exclude from membershiia any who may have credit in un- 
awares. In the course of the debate on these resolutions Free Masonry 
was bitterly denounced." 

Opposition to Masonry in South America. 

"Lima, August 1st, 1885. — The Bishop of Lima has sent an address to 
Monsignor Favor, Minister of Justice, protesting against the proj^osed 
Masonic Hall to be erected in Lima. The Minister has rephed in strong 
terms, dejDrecating the publicity given to the j^rotest by the Bishop, but 
assuring him that in virtue of the Constitution the Government has not 
permitted and never will permit the erection of a Masonic Temple in Lima. " 



In the U. S. a. 

"The exercises of laying the corner stone of the new State University 
building on yesterday afternoon by the Masonic fraternity were well at- 
tended, though there were not as many as were expected from abroad." 

[Is it not time that such de-sdltry and desecration was killed by the 
American jjeoijle ?] 

Editor Cynosure: — 1. Is the man a consistent Christian who i>reaches 
Christ in the jjulpit, he being a member of the Masonic fraternity, reject- 
ing Christ m their ritual and prayers ? 

2. Is any man entitled to our confidence and respect as a true Christian, 
whose hfe and character are controlled by Masonic oaths and public 
opinion ? 

3. Ai-e not those who place their hope of salvation on a Christ-exclud- 
ing reHgion as far wrong as heathen, and more guilty ? 

4. Are not Masonic ministers stumbhng-blocks, in the way of all other 
Masons, though they preach Christ in the pulpit, as they are i:)aid to do? 

5. Is it not indecent and partial to require a Masonic candidate to 
solemnly swear to be chaste toward the female relatives of brother Masons 
only? 

6. Can a Christian innocently neglect to inform himself and others in 
regard to a Christ excluding religion in our midst ? 

7. Who strains at a gnat and swallows a camel, if not the Masonic 
Bajstist, who will not commune with a person who has not been put under 
water ? 

8. Is not the man who will not inform himself in regard to an impor- 
tant duty as guilty in the sight of God as the man who knew his duty and 
did it not ? 



The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 585 

9. Can it ever be right to solemnly swear to keep another's secrets in 
all cases, except miirder and treason? 

10. Is wi-ong-doing any less sinful because so-called good men have 
made it pojjular ? 

11. Would any respectable man join a Mason lodge, knowing the in- 
side working of the order, as all ought to know it ? 

12. Is it not mainly because Masons are ashamed of their doings that 
candidates are required to swear "to ever conceal and never reveal" the 
secrets of the order ? 

13. Would not the professing Christian, who dare not answer these 
questions, do well to revise his religion V J. M. 

"Gentlemen: — You know jon are a set of knaves, hypocritically ajnug 
innocence. We recognize what you are — that you flourish by cheating, 
lying, and force. We cannot at present help that. You are strong, united, 
cunning; the people are weak, disunited, apathetic, ignorant. But we 
who profess, in some measure, to guide pubhc opinion will not cease to 
point out your tricks and roguishness until we shall have left you not a 
rag of character, and you will be glad to hide from the contempt, if not 
the shoe-leather, of those whom you have beguiled so long!" Dodo. 

* * 

* 

"On Tuesday, November 16th, 1888, Dan Collins, a resident of Colfax, 
evidently insane, while court was in session, suddenly walked to the wit- 
ness bar and attempted to address the jury. Judge Langford stopjoed 
him, when he claimed the right to address the jury, and said his life was 
being threatened and his property was about to be taken away by Masons, 
Odd Fellows and other conspirators. The court refen-ed him to the 
grand jury, in session, and on going down stairs he was arrested on a 
charge of insanity, and taken before Judge Thompson, who so adjudged 
him." 

[Are such victims now languishing in secret prisons to have no re- 
course? Reflect that the courts are often in i]ie contr-ol of these very con- 
spirators Avho thus judge and hold their victims. 

On the other hand take this:] 

"Trial Closed. — A Dallas letter of a recent date contains the follow- 
ing: The close of the trial of C. . . for the killing of F. . . near Lone Rock, 
last June, has taken place, resulting in the acquittal of C. . . The rulings 
of the new judge was a surprise to many, and has caused much comment. 
If a man is running for dear hfe from you, it is better and justifiable to 
shoot for fear of his retui'u, especially if he is on what is believed to be his 
own land and you want it. Are these conditions to go on and on, and the 
public be compelled to submit to the woeful travesty of justice for all 
time to come ? Has vitalized and aroused public opinion no infliaence in 
changing an order of things that is heajjing disgrace uijon the country and 
insecurity ujjon the lives of the people? There are times when men, des- 
pairing of the justice of courts and seeing in them only the liveries of 
Clime, sweep aside these public farces and take the law into their own 
hands." 

* 

" The people are earnestly searching for some means by which society 
may be protected and human life made secure. There certamly ought to 
be conditions in which the law can be used as a means of i^ublic safety ; 
in which homicides can be punished and pilferers and swindlers be brought 
to justice. But, humiliating as is the confession, these conditions do not 
exist. Crime was never more insolent and menacing — Courts never so 



586 The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 

weak and inefficient. Life is at the mercy of every assassin who chooses 
to take it ; property the spoils of every dishonest wretch who conspires to 
seize it. 

How long these conditions will be allowed to prevail we are unable to 
say ; but there is a growing sentiment which will biu'st some day in all the 
fury and desolation of a tempest, and it will sweep outlaws and their abet- 
tors from the face of the earth. Not even Courts can continue forever to 
shield criminals from jDunishment and mock with insolent indifference and 
unblushing collusion with crime the indignant sense of an outraged com- 
munity. Judges and juries, and Courts of last resort have trampled upon 
the rights and insulted the moral sense of the peojile long enough. It is 
time to call a halt." 



"The people are banding together to make an example of a few of 
such gentry. Right here let us say we beheve the law of every State 
should inflict capital punishment forsteahng stock and robbing post-offices 
and betraying other triists in any amount of money over $5. The old 
North Carolina law was a good one. The breed of thieves should be 
stopped by strangulation. Such j^unishment of a few would deter others. 
No man has a right to claim an existence among men when he is a practi- 
cal thief. The country is getting to full of low, dirty scoundrels who de- 
sire to live well off the product of the labor and business of others. The 
law should be to hang every thief jsroven to be such. This world is too far 
in the advance of ci\^zation to allow men of such low morals to have an 
existence among the rising generation. Theii' examjiles are too fraught 
with evil to be suffered to live on the Earth." 



"We have a country of unbounded resources, becoming richer and 
richer every day ; and yet, the class that produces the wealth is becoming 
jjoorer and poorer with the most alarming rapidity, and they have them- 
selves to blame for it. If they have not actually and actively aided the 
oppression that environs them, they have fencouraged it by their silence. 

The land is swarming with men who live by their wits, and our law- 
makers come largely from this class. They are not too honest to steal or 
rob, but they do it in accordance with the isrevailing ideas of our present 
advanced civilization. 

Somehow they nearly all, directly or indirectly, draw from the public 
treasury, and much of the money thus obtained is no better than robbery; 
but their methods are legahzed and the peoj^le are helpless so long as they 
do not take matters into their own hands. These parasites and grabbers 
are all loyal to themselves." 



" Where law by reason of its deficiency is inai^plicable to a certain 
class of individuals, and punishment cannot be meted out to a certain 
class of wrong-doers, Avhen rascality runs rampant and villainy holds high 
carnival — when under the thinnest of legal subterfuges men go on and 
heedlessly commit wrong upon wrong on almost defenseless man or set of 
men — when men by their wealth and position are enabled to single out a 
man and taking advantage of his omission, would rob him Avith no law to 
say stop — then we say it well becomes a community to make a la\v unto 
themselves, and even though it be ' wild justice ' it is better than no justice 
at all, if it stays the evil and stops the curse. The Anglo-Saxon race is by 
nature and training law-abiding. The American jjcople are not false to 



The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 587 

their ancestry or tlieir civilization, and ponder long ere they would take 
unto themselves the issuance of decrees and the administration of ' wild 
justice,' yet we say whenever a man becomes a confirmed criminal — 
whether of polish and high bred or coarse and of low estate, it matters not, 
and persists in violating the laws of a reasonable humanity, then we say 
and say it with no compunction of conscience, organized society ought 
to break his neck, swiftly and in an ample way. 

There are enough worthy objects upon which to lavish sympathy or 
to bestow benefactions. AU around us are poor and worthy men and 
women whose fortunes have been hard, whose lives have been mostly in 
the shadow of ill-success. To such let charity extend a helping hand. It 
may save some soul from crime. They are deserving of sympathy and 
support. But to the vile and heartless, the conscienceless and cowardly, 
the brutal and bloodthirsty [masonic] assassins, who so rarely are brought 
to punishment, nothing but stern, inexorable justice is due or should be 
extended. Sympathy -with such is an abnormal sentiment; it is weak, 
maudlin, morbid and wicked." 

The Woekingsian. 

"In point of fact the workingman is chained to a treadmill, and makes 
his weary round, day in and day out, wearing the collar of servitude, while 
he ploddingly but unintermittingly giinds out dollars for the masons. 
Into the hopper are dumped Hfe, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and 
out of it comes more millions for the men who do not need them — more 
misery for the men who really make these milHons. 

The i^oorest citizen shoiild have as much interest in his condition, 
and in the general condition of the country as the wealthiest man, and yet 
tens of thousands of our citizens look on quietly while they are being 
taxed for the benefit of legal s^vindlers and while their native soil is being 
plundered. Truly does it take a long time to civihze human beings." 

* * 
* 

"Resolved, First, that we declare our opposition to the Republican 
party for its frauds and robbery of the jjeople. It has created a milhon- 
aire nobiHty and imjioverished the jjopulace. It has taken dominion from 
the lords of blood and passed it to the lords of gold. It has given to the 
transi^ortation department of this country an emi)ire of the public domain 
larger in extent than the whole of England, Ireland and Scotland, thus 
robbing the peojile of their rightful inheritance. It has created an olig- 
archy of a few thousand idle drones and furnished them with the means 
and ajjpliances to absorb from and rob the toiling miUions of their annual 
hard earnings." 

[Is it the "Republican party," or is it practical masonry ?] 

* * 

* 

"A spirit of communism and carelessness is engendered in his breast 
when the farmer of the Willamette Valley comes to this city and looks on 
the i)alaces and other e^^dences of wealth which surround him, and re- 
members that after twenty years of ceaseless toil and ])rivation there is a 
mortgage on his httle farm that he cannot pay, and that the fruits of his 
life long industry have gone into the pockets of men who never reclaimed 
one acre of land from the wildei*ness, nor added one dollar to the in-o- 
ductive industries of the State." 

"As I write I have before my mind's eye a double picture on this 
Christmas morning. On one side a beautiful Christmas tree standing in 



588 The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 

the bay w'indow of a stately mansion ; the tree is loaded down with beauti- 
ful articles of luxury, which only the wealthy can possess. In the room 
at dawn of day are grouped the youthful members of the proud aristo- 
crat's household, the youngest of which exclaims, ' Good Santa Claus.' 
Could everybody be rich, and were luxury within the reach of all, or did 
the riches come honestly to hand this would be all right and proper, but 
on the other side is the hovel of the unfortunate poor. Here, too, are 
little ones beautiful even in their rags. In a corner sits the disconsolate 
mother, listening to their innocent prattle and shedding irrepressible tears 
as a child exclaims, ' Why don't Santa Claus come ? " The father having 
been beaten out of the bulk of his property by a few [masonic] bilks,is now 
compelled to do menial ser\ice to keep the wolf from the door. He has 
not the heart to face his family now, but is laboring with all his might to 
keep his family supplied Avith the bare necessaries of life, while the pro- 
prietor of the mansion is saying comj)lacently that providence has favored 
him in the acquisition of his wealth. The religion which gives one man 
millions and another nothing comes from hell and not from heaven. 

A. J. S." 

* * 
* 

"There is scarcely a hall for public gatherings in this city but what 
would prove the scene of death or damage in case of a fire occurring in 
them when occupied by an audience, but it might be libelous to make any 
mention of ixirticular instances before the coroner sits upon the dead." 

[That is, if the proprietor has secret influence at court ! Such is the 
libel law in the hands of the gang. J 

* * 
* 

" The pubHc sentiment in the Montague case with all decent citizens 
is with the husband. There are too many smart, no account licentious men 
in this city who think that the most creditable thing they can perform is to 
break up the peace of famihes. The only redress the injured men have is 
to take the law into their own hands and there is no jury in the United 
States which will con\dct them." 

[This is how the ring press shouts out when the offender is an out- 
sider ; otherwise they hold it to be " murder " to kill such people, and the 
"good judiciary" either convicts "the injured man" or robs him of his 
proi^erty, or both.] 

* 

" This [Links] was then editor in and Postmaster of the place. The 
people were comiilaining of him, and Governor Beall charged him with 
whatever the derehctions were. Afterward, when he entered Link's office 
he was shot twice by him and died from the wounds. A jury — a military 
court-martial — which had no more jurisdiction of the case than the vestry 
of a church in this city, acquitted [Links. ] 

[Thus he was " acquitted " (?) as he also was about fifty times after- 
wards on other charges, which was jjractical masomy also. ] 



"It is well known that the people of this Territory have been almost, 
and some of them entirely, driven from their homes by the extortionate 
charges of physicians and surgeons. 

New York and several of the other Eastern States have laws to protect 
their citizens against such high-handed robbery as is practiced on this 
coast. It may not be generally known, but this one thing alone is a great 
drawback to the settlement of this Territory. 



The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 589 



Not long since I came up -with an emigrant train in camp. They, of 
course, made a great many inquiries about the country and its customs 
generally, the prices of various articles of home consumption and jiroduce, 
and finally an old gentleman asked what our doctors charged yiev mile. I 
informed them that they charged $1 per mile in the day and double that 
at night -with a bill at the drug store of about $5 each trij). The expres- 
sion of those people at this news, was exactly this : ' My God, how do 
the people hve here ? ' " • 

[The quacks all belong to the gang and can thus, through secret 
brethren at court, e«/o7-ce their extortion and mal-jjractice on their victims. 
Even the testimony of others of the oath-hound gunq is taken as evidence in 
the ring-ridden courts against the injured citizen !] 

"Sheppard testified in his own behalf, saying: 

When I was twelve years of age I was employed in a counterfeiting 
establishment which was owned and operated, among others, by Charles 
H. Leonard, recently mayor of Galveston, Tex. , and at present one of the 
most i^rominent citizens of that city. Interested with him in this business 
Avere the mayor of New Orleans, city officials, chief of jjolice, judges, and 
limbs of the law. Then the judge of the criminal court for the parish of 
Orleans was a partner in the establishment, also a prominent lawyer who 
now occupies a judgeshii^ in Baltimore. These people were engaged in 
counterfeiting Mexican coin, United States bills and money of every 
descrii^tion. The Mexican money was manufactured down stairs, and the 
United States notes, etc. , were turned out up-stairs. My position was that 
of messenger for the establishment and as such I deHvered the counterfeit 
money to the banks of the city and high city ofticials. Thousands and 
thousands of dollars of this money was manufactiu-ed and circulated here 
and elsewhere throughout this country and Mexico. Many of the persons 
engaged in counterfeiting them have left behind them sons and daughters 
who move in the highest society. For this reason I do not projjose to 
make known the names of the jjersons for whom I first worked in the 
counterfeiting business. All my life it has been my misfortune to suft'er 
for and to bear the burdens of other iiersons' misdeeds. My whole life 
has been one of continued sacrifice.' Sheppard is now sixty -two years of 
age." [What a 'good judiciary.'] 

* * 
* 

[Such a "good judiciary."] 

Says a local paper to-day: "An Oregon man who shot a lawyer a few 
years ago was couA-icted and sentenced to prison. This mistake has just 
been corrected by the governor, who gives him fulli^ardon. The mystery 
surrounding his conviction has not yet been explained." 

[The brother was shot for practical Masonry! That's what.] 

* * 

* 

"Another Shooting. — About five o'clock on Tuesday evening of last 
week, [Links], ot Asotin county, shot and killed one Elmer Stimpson. As 
we learn, Stimpson took Meyer's wife sometime since and ran off with her, 
and last week the two returned, and, in 2)assing the field in which Meyers 
was at work, Avaved their handkerchiefs at him. He returned the "salute," 
not knowing who they were, but wlien told, went and procured a Win- 
chester rifle and shot Stimi)sou, the ball i)assiug through his right breast, 
and he died on Wednesday night. Meyers then fired at his wife, but 
missed his aim. The murderer gave him.self up to the Sheriff and was held 
to appear before Justice Ausmau on Monday in the sum of $1,500. 



590 The Pkactical Workings of Masonry, etc. 

[Tlie slayer was a secret brother and was " acquitted " (?) according- 
ly. His own, sworn brethren were on the jury !] 



"The Ring.— Garfield county has been run by a handful of Ring 
Democrats and Eing Republicans long enough. The hard working 
farmers are tii-ed of Ring Rule. It is too expensive, too exacting and too 
unjust. Now is the time to shake off the Ring shackles. The old settlers 
of the county say they want a change, and are going to vote a change. 
Will the farmers, and theii- wives and theii- daughters, vote to perpetuate 
a [masonic] ring ?" 

[N^ame one of the gang, if you can, that is neither a mason or odd-fellow? \ 



According to Tlie New-Orleans States, the official democratic jjaper in 
that city, B. B. Jones, recently appointed consul at Callao, is a fugitive 
from justice. He was, it says, indicted in Louisiana for the assassination 
of General Liddell in 1870, and escaping from a band of lynchers fled 
from the country. He now turns up as the President's choice for con- 
sul at Callao, and The States demands that Governor McEnery make a 
requisition for his body. — Neto Yo7-k Tribune. 

[Secret influence, my boy. An office instead of $2,500 reward.] 



The "By-gone" Recced. 

A newcomer wants to know what the " infamous record " of [Links] 
is. It is easily recited. First, while school teacher, he seduced one of his 
pupils. This offense against good morals had been condoned by his mar- 
riage to her, the birth of two or three children f oUo^dng. Second, after 
his marriage he became enamored of another woman with whom he left 
the States, leaving his wife and several of his children so destitute that the 
former finally brought uji in the poor house. Third, at the time of his 
flight he took some $4,000 which did not belong to him. Foui-th, to 

evade the officers of the law he assumed an alias, his true name being 

These facts Links acknowledged to be true, but pleaded the "baby act " 
and said they were " early indiscretions." 

Up to the time of coming to , Links had committed four crimes 

punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary. While living here under 
an assumed name he again married without first obtaining a divorce from 
the first wife. With this wife he Hved for many years and became the 
father of her children before legally man-ying her. These facts fonn an 
outline of a career whose details cannot be told u'ithoiU outrage to decency. 
All of these crimes Links confesses, but wishes the people to look over 
as by-gones. And yet in the face of this damning record, and in the 
face of more recent moral and political misdemeanors shameful to man- 
hood, there are people who flock to his support, attracted by the thin 
molasses of a polite address, or the hope of a share in official spoils. 
The man is not wanted by the people and their representatives will not 
elect him to the high place which he asks." 

[But as he was a high Freemason he was there/ore elected (?) and is 
now lording it in the United States Senate. Then why should criminals 
in prison reform ? Why not rather join the gang and run for office ? As 
this case is but an example !] 



The Practical Workings op Masonry, etc. 591 

[I here give another mere exami^le of iiractical masonrv ! that is going 
on while innocent men are being convicted and held to languish !] 

Voorhees, of Indiana, and Blackburn, of Kentucky, defended [Links] 
earnest appeals to the doctrine of "higher law." Blackbui-n, in closing a 
speech that was really remarkable for energy and eloquence, said : " There 
is but one tribunal on earth where cases like this of Thomi^son's can be 
adjusted. It is a tribunal in which conscience sits on the bench. Its 
judgments are traced in blood. It has the sanction of the law of human- 
ity wherever civihzation prevails. It is God's law, and you cannot re- 
verse it." 

[Bid why is it that this "higher law " is never heard of except in behalf of 
members of secret oath-bound orders? It couiiD easily be put into a com- 
mon state IjAW and made available to all men alike, and not requiring 
$1,000 or $2,000 middlemen and other great expense to dig it up and show 
it to the court and jury or else to die ! Damn such courts ; they ought to 
be killed! It cost the Indian nothing to administer this "higher law." 
Nor did it the white man on the plains !] 



On "Bjgher Law" in Kentucky. 

Lo u isville Co urier-Jo urncd. 

The shot-gun is mightier than the courts. It is a universal leveler. It 
simi^lifies and cheapens the law, and brings it to the door of the poorest 
when need is, and long may its policy prevail, mute sentinel by the 
fii'eside, guarding the honor of our women, protecting our cradles and 
oiu* children ; a menace to wives that are weak, and a j)erpetual terror 
to libertines and hbertinism. 

[What consolation is such talk to victims looted and languishing in 
secret robbing prisons, becau.se they even dared to defend their lives and 
homes against robbing, murdering libertines, and in the v&)'y act! The 
court gang says to the citizen: "Your money or your life!" and it 
often gets away with both.] 

* * 

* 

" The Glenn Murder Trial. 

The Glenn murder trial was resumed. R. M. Cochran, superintendent 
of the Glenn ranch, was the first mtness called. He testified to ha^ang 
pursued Miller, and shot him in the leg before he would sun-ender after 
the shooting of Glenn. After being shot. Miller fell on his back, and 
when ordered by the witness, he threw his gun to one side. When watness 
approached Miller, the latter asked for protection and help as a brother 
Mason. Witness decUned to testify to conversations between MiUer and 
himseK, as it would be in violation of the rules of Masonry. He did not 
know that Miller was a Mason until after he had shot him. " 

[And thus is the supreme allegiance to a foreign secret government 
over our goveniment granted by ring-ridden courts. Hoip can an outsider 
get justice in siich courts against one of the gang when they are thus 
allowed to "ever concetd and never reveal" each other's seci'ets ? And 
mark that this is in a case of murder. Is one of these foreign, pagan sub- 
jects fit to be a sheriff, judge or any other official ?] 



"Physicians allow that the lancet is a cruel iustriiment, biit tell us 
' that its timely apjihcation often saves life. ' Law and its administration 
in Oregon show but few marks of the principles declared as being those of 



592 The Pkactical Workings of Masonry, etc. 

the American union. From the justices' courts to the supreme court, 

where can a poor man get justice ? They afford no 

excuse to coiTuiJt and unjust judges who bear the double brand of shame, 

as perjurers and traitors to their country 

For in them is vested the authority to decide the issues which confirm or 
destroy rights to property, Hberty and life. Hence corruj)t [Masonic] 
rings exercise their utmost efforts to keep control of the courts. The courts 
of law should be the bulwark of the peojile's liberties. Ai'e our State 
courts such ? Our State su^jreme court was in its inception a fraud. No 
State or jjeople has ever gained anything by covering its mistakes but ig- 
nominious ex^josure and disaster. Many have gained by fearlessly facing 

and exposing them After careful examination of the 

subject, his opinion was uttered in one short sentence: ' What a supreme 
court ! ' We have occasionally to dei^lore such acts as those of j^eople 
who break into prisons and take out criminals and hang or shoot them 
without the trial the law allows. If they would now and then take a judge 
and hang him by his neck till he was dead, it would be matter for small 
regret. The former class are mostly illiterates anyway ; the latter are sup- 
posed to be men of education and honor; but when judges tamper "svith 
the lieojale's rights, they ought to swing. They are sworn to protect them. 
Crimes of the poor and ignorant should be treated with lenience. Those 
of the rich and educated should never be overlooked nor condoned. If I 
correctly understand the meaning of that gi'eat word, 'Liberty,' such 
woiild be the means to secure it. When a dozen men, or twenty dozen 
men, undertake to run a State or government even to its courts of so-called 
justice, it is time for that State to rise up in righteous indignation and 
make an end of them all. Where there is one administration of law for 
the rich and another for the poor, where a rich man is allowed to steal his 
thousands and a poor one imprisoned for stealing a loaf to feed his family, 
there is no real liberty. Liberty means not only protection for the rich, 
but also absolute freedom and justice for the poor; and if the courts of 
law are made vehicles of oppression and inequity, it would be far more 
just to hang a few educated judges than many others whose errors are 
traceable to poverty or ignorance. J. Feed. Clakk." 

"Dkiven into Povekty and Prison, Disgrace and Insane Asylum. 

About a year ago George Conroy sued the Northern Pacific Kailroad 
Comi^any for injuiies received by falling into the cesspool the company 
had dug on their right of way just east of Mr. Herouxs barn. Last winter 
the comjiany took a change of venue to Olympia, where the case came up 
in June last for trial and Conroy was nonsuited. Upon the termination of 
the suit the company made a complaint against Conroy for perjury, and 
had him bound over to the December term of the court to await the action 
of the Grand Jury. Conroy lay in jail all summer, and in consequence of 
his confinement, and suffering from his rupture and ill-health, his mind 
became affected, and last Saturday he was sent to the Insane Asylum at 
SteUacoom. 

There is very little use of any one attempting to get satisfaction out 
of a i-aihoad company. Poor people particularly ought to know that they 
have no show to right their wrongs through the courts. Railroads dehght 
in the reputation they have 'that it is no use to law the railroad,' no 
matter how just the cause may be against them. They will hire men to 
commit perjury or anything to gain their ends, and when now and then a 
poor devil does try to get his rights, the company ■\rill hire a host of vnt- 
neases, and in the end send the man to jail until he becomes insane. This 
is the way the raikoads have of terrifying the people. 



The Practical Wobkings of Masonry, etc. 593 

Conroy ought to have known he was not able to cope with the North- 
em Pacific Railroad. If Lewis County could not do anything with the 
company, how could a single individual hope to do so ? " " 

* * 

* 

Secret societies have been (J/ebmie of all countries and the cause of the 
downfall of all Republics. America, whose greatest boast is, it believes all 
men are created free and equal, has no use for secret societies. Many men 
are artfully drawn into secret societies, but few self-respecting, patriotic 
Americans continue their connection after they learn the aims and practices 
of the oath-bound orders. In our \'iew the danger to the liberties of the 
jjeople wliich many see in the concentration of great wealth in the hands 
of few men and corporations, are homoeopathic compared with the danger 
to the free institutions of America hidden in the oath-bound societies 
which are contrived, set in motion and kept going by designing dema- 
gogues, whose chief aim in life is to live well without labor. 

" [Fkee-Masons] HoiiDiNO Millions of Dollars Wobth of Property 
AND Allowing Laboring Men to Pay all the Taxes. 

"Some time ago we called attention to the fact that ujjon the 
shoulders of the middle classes rested the burden of taxation, and we 
cited several cases iu substantiation of the assertion. To-day we have 
a few more cases which we desire to call attention to, and if they do 
not show up a little system of ' mysterious ' proceedings on the jjart of 
some of our wealthiest citizens, then Ave are at a loss to determine what 
would be called ' mysterious. ' . . . . 

[It \a\l be found that nearly, if not all, of these dehnquents who 
escape taxation owe supi'eme allegiance to a foreign government. And they 
generally manage to have an assessor elected who is a fellow-oath-bound 
subject of the same masonic gang. A fool can see the result all around 

HIM.] 

"It is dishonest and demoralizing to the imblic for such notorious 
disregard of truth and law to continue from year to year, and that, too, 

with a semi-official encouragement extended to it The man who 

has little save a small homestead, worth $1,000 or ^1,500, jjavs on $750 
or $1,000, while the man or company worth $50,000 or $100,000, pays 
for not more than $10,000 or $15,000. It is high time an organized 
effort was made to break up this dishonesty. The citizens should select 
competent, honest and fearless men for assessors, and then give them 
the encouragement and moral su^iport they would need in destroying 
the [masonic] wall behind which the class of tax jjayers are entrenched 
who avail themselves of fraud and perjuiy to escape their just share of 
the pubUc burdens. The aggregate valuations would double, and per- 
hai>s quadruple, and this would render necessary a less rate of taxation. 
The city and county rate could safely be lessened one-half. Honest 
men would not have to i)ay as much as now, and their less scrupulous 
[hnked] neighbors would be compelled to do what they now dishonestly 
avoid." 

* * 

* 

" There is annually 50,000 acres of land unassessed in Polk county, 
or one-sixth of the entire town and farming area of this county is yearly 
untaxed. By an honest assessment, therefore, the iierceutage of taxation 

38 



594 The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 

coiild he reduced two mills on the dollar. It lias taken tlie county sur- 
Teyor, together with his assistant, six months to compute these figures." 

[And so it is everywhere when the secret gang gets a fellow-subject in 
as assessor. It is iwdctical viasonry /] 

* * 

" A certain disreputable fellow [a masonic lawyei'-honored 'member 
of the bar '] Avho was a member of the last legislature, and who was then 
under an indictment for perjiu'v, in order to shield himself succeeded 
in working through a law in such a shape that no j)erson who swears 
falsely is guilty of perjury. " 

[Not quite so ; all the laws are so fixed that they don't operate against 
members of the gang, but their shape is good enough to work against out- 
siders, and when tlu r j is no code law to apply then, the higher law of 
" public policy" is dug up and used against him. So the code laws are 
really but a convenient blind and humbug to swindle the jjeople.] 

* * 
* 

TlMBEB ThIETES. 

The California Redwood company, an English company with Scotch 
directors, has stolen 64,000 acres of the most valuable timber land in the 
world, estimated by exjjerts to be worth not less than $22,000,000. Four 
hundred men were found who would enter 160 acres each and then deed 
the land to this Redwood company. Some of these men were town jiau- 
pers, some of them paralytics, some of them sailors not yet naturahzed. 
These straw " homesteaders " marched from a rumhole in Eureka, Cal., to 
the United States land office and then to a notary i^ubHc to transfer their 
land. For this service they received $50 each and this Redwood company 
with its foreign capital, English president and Scotch directors got an 
alleged title to 64,000 acres of valuable land heavily timbered. To " jjrove 
up " his claim required perjury, and perjury was forthcoming. Of course, 
the homestead act was not intended to be used for such gross perversion 
of land that belongs to the bona fide settler, and these facts illustrate what 
frightful robberies of pubHc lands are perpetrated in defiance of the tim- 
ber land act. 

In connection with these enormous public land robberies it is worth 
while to notice that the last official act of Lamar, as Secretary of the In- 
terior, was to remove from office, as the price of his support of the re- 
publican senators who voted for his conformation, Captain John W. Le- 
Barues, an ex-Union soldier, an old-time anti-slavery friend of Governor 
Andrew and Wendell Phillips. LeBarnes was a law clerk of the general 
laud office, who for years has stood in the way of land grabbers, railway 
cori)oiations, attorneys for cattle companies, j^ine land combinations, etc." 

[Those who don't know are here informed that it is only a secret oath- 
bound gang of masons, etc., that overrides and defies our government, and 
works these land SAvindles through with impunity, a part of Avhom must he 
officials in the land office and the courts. A citizen, therefore, who, with 
these indisputable facts and swindles staring him in the face, who Avould 
appoint or vote for one of these oath-bound subjects of the gang for office 
is either a fool or a thief and a traitor to his country ! Let all persons 
who believe that their duty to their secret government and pagan " mys- 
teries " is higher than their duty to their country, be declared to be iti- 



The PiucTicAL Workings of Masonry, etc. 595 

eligible to act asjuroi'S or to hold any office of trust uniler the general govern- 
ment if it is to be supreme ! 

Is it not safer ami better to trust to an instinctive love for our fellow 
creatures, which caunot be pervei'ted to their annoyance, than to secret- 
oath-boixnd subjection to a despotic gang which have too frequently pro- 
duced the seeds of hatred, intolerance and high-handed persecution ?] 

* * 
* 

"An AliLEGED MUKDEREK DiSCHABGED. " 

. . . . " Justice [Mason] discharged from custody to-day [Links] charged 
with the murder of [Blank]. In rendering his decision the justice said 
that the defense had clearly proved by the testimony of ' two exjDei-ts ' 
[brethren] that defendant was not in his right mind at the time of com- 
mitting the act." [Links had shot Blank down in open com-t and shot 
him in the back in cold blood ! and was never before or since sent to any 
insane asylum. And was not insane though his \'ictim may have been. Now 
all should know that an outsider can never get discharged from a charge 
of such a murder by only getting two "experts" (?) to testify that he 
" was not in his right mind at the time of committing the act." 

Now look here! Would men, even victims, be "in their right 
minds " in the killing of ring prostituted courts ? This defendant whose 
farce of a trial and discharge is bid a sample case of so many had not 
been wi-onged much in comparison to hundreds of men who besides are 
now languishing in secret prisons, and who have greater cause and better 
right to kill a dozen men each, than he had to kill one ! In truth he 
hardly knows what a -nTong is ! or what it is to suffer cruel, relentless, 
persistent, flaming injury ! A7-e you ready all ! to see to it that these out- 
raged, tortured, bleeding victims have the benefit, if they like, of the 
" higher law " or of "experts" (?) as well as do members of the gang ?] 

* * 

" The ring in this town is composed of [masonic] Democrats as well 
as [masonic] llepubhcans. They have a common cause — the spoils of all 
they can get." 

[They pack both conventions with their secret oath-bound brethren 
so they can say to the jjeople, " heads we win and tails you loose." The 
Austrahan election system should be adoj^ted.] 

* * 
* 

PROCEEDrNGS OF CoUNTY COMMISSIONERS' CoURT. 

" Matter of remitting taxes on Odd Fellows' Temple. Ordered that 
said taxes be cancelled." 

[It is to their supreme and secret government that they pay their 
taxes. Such "commissioners " are traitors !] 

* * 
* 

How the gang " hang men for hctraying a trust or stealing a sum exceed- 
ing $0," as they howl should be done {meaning to outsiders) : 

"The Washi)igto7iia7i, in a very soothing tone remarks about as fol- 
lows : At the regular session of the commissioners last week. Brother 



596 The Pkactic.\l Workings of Masonry, etc. 

Links, the Treasurer, Tvas found to be sliort in Ms accounts $12,300. Mr. 
Links Las humbly resigned, and concludes by saving, "It is a bad state 
of afiairs, but Ave withhold comments until further facts are developed." 
Why attempt to smooth over so dastardly a theft ? A man in whom 
the people have confided, to maliciously and intentionally rob them of 
their trust, is a thousand times worse than the poor, half-starved sneak- 
thief who jjrowls about nights, seeking what he can find to apisease hunger 
or cloth nudity." 

"More of the Gang's Work." 

"As will be seen by the telegraphic dispatches, it has been discovered 
that Links, Treasurer of Garfield county, and a number of the [masonic] 
i-ing of political tricksters, is short in his accounts at least $12,000. Of 
course, you can't turn a wheel A\dthout water — neither can you run machine 
pontics without soap. Links furnished the soaj), in the meantime blasting 
Ms character and ruining his bondsmen. The money was ' loaned ' to the 
same corrupt gang who recently tried to work the primaries. Garfield 
county has long been noted for this con-upt [masonic] gang, and it is to 
be hoped that tliis expose will settle this crowd of thieves." 

" The Pomeroy Independent, with tears in his eyes, says : ' Links has 
been a brother to us, but we cannot excuse him in the great wrong he has 
done his frienels in this transaction. This paper insists tliat the law take 
its course as it Avould in the case of a delinquent tax-payer. " This is a call 
to all grand larceny defaulting thieves to go to Pomeroy for brotherly i^ro- 
tection, because there they are only classed as delinquent tax-payers." 

[And the court said that he (being a mason) was '■'■ innocent of any 

crimed Good judieiarv !] 

* * 

" How did he discharge the ofiice of a Judge ? Let those who suf- 
fered by his injustice answer It is notorious that during the time of 

their tyranny the [people] neither enjoyed the protection of their laws.. 
Dor of the natural and unalienable rights of men. No inhabitant of the 
ruined country has been able to keep possession of anything but what has 
either escaped the rapaciousness, or been neglected by the satiety of those 
universal plunderers. Their nod has decided all causes and their decisions 
liave broken all law, all precedent, all right. The sums they have by 
arbitrary taxes and unheard-of impositions extorted from the industrious 
poor, are not to be computed. The most faithful citizens have been 
treated as criminals. [American] citizens have, like slaves, been put to 
death with tortures. The most atrocious criminals, for money [or secret 
influence], have been exempted from their deserved punishments, and 
men of the most unexceptional characters condemned and imjirisoned un- 
heard The infamy of their lewdness has been such as decency forbids 

to describe. Nor will I, by mentioning particulars, jiut those unfortunate 
persons to fresh pain, who have not been able to save their wives and 
daughters from their impurities. And these, their atrocious crimes, have 
been committed in so jjublic a manner, that there is no one who has heard 
their name, but could reckon up their actions. 

Now [gentlemen of the masonic gang] I ask what you have to advance 
against this charge ? Will you pretend to deny it ? Will you pretend 



The PRACTia\L Workings of Masonry, etc. 597 

that anything false, that even anything aggravated, is alleged against 
YOU ? Had any ijrince or any State committed the same outrages against 
the priv-ileges of [American] citizens, should Ave not think we had sufficient 
ground for declaring war against them ? What punishment ought then to 
be inflicted upon a tyrannical and wicked [gang] who dared in the [shadow 
of the American flag] to jjut to an infamous torture and death that unf or- 
tunate and innocent citizen. .. .only for ha\ang asserted his privilege of 
citizenshi]?, and declared his intention of appeaUng to the justice of his 
country against a cruel opjiressor, who had unjustly confined him in prison 
from whence he had made his escape ? The unhap^jy man . . is brought 
before the wicked [gang]. With eyes darting fury and countenances dis- 
torted -ndth cruelty, they order the helpless victim of their rage to be 
strij^ped and rods to be brought ; accusing him, but without the least 
shadow of evadence, or even of suspicion of having [committed any crime]. 
It was in vain that the unhappy man cried out, ' I am an [American] 
citizen, and will attest my innocence. ' The blood-thirsty [gang] , deaf to 
all he could urge in his own defence, ordered the infamous punishment to 
be inflicted. Thus, [fellow-citizens], was an innocent American citizen 
pubUcly mangled .... whilst the only words he uttered amidst his cruel 
sufi'erings were, ' I am an [American] citizen ! ' Witli these lie hoped to 
defend himself from violence and infamy. But of so little service was 
this privilege to him, that while he was thus asserting his citizenship, the 
order was given for his destruction. 

Oh, liberty ! Oh, sound once delightful to every [American] ear ! Oh, 
sacred privilege of [American] citizenshii^ ! once sacred, now trampled 
upon ! But what then ? Is it come to this ? Shall an inferior magistrate, 
a governor, who holds his whole power of the [American] people in [au 
American State] bind, surge, torture ■with red hot jslates of iron, and at the 
last put to an infamous death, an American citizen ? Shall neither the 
cries of innocence expiring in agony, nor the tears of pitying spectators, 
nor the majesty of the [American Union] nor the fear of the justice of his 
country, restrain the licentious and wanton cruelty of a monster, who, in 
confidence of his riches [and secret power] strikes at the root of liberty, 
and sets mankind at defiance ? 

I conclude with expressing my hopes that your wisdom and justice 
[my fellow-men] will not, by suffering the atrocious and unexamjiled inso- 
lence of [the masonic gang] to escape the due punishment, leave room to 
apprehend the danger of a total subversion of authority and introduction 
of general anarchy and confusion. " Cicero. 

"Dr. [Links] Arrived." 
" Dr. [Links] returned last Monday from the East. He was delegate 
to the Sovereign Grand Lodge, I. O. O. F. , which met at Baltimore, Mary- 
land. He has had an interview with President Cleveland, and says that 
the chief magistrate of the nation is a good and true man. The Avay it 
came about was this : Mr. Links ai^plied for admittance to his Excel- 



598 The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 

lency's presence. There were about one hundred persons in waiting on 
the President, all anxious to get the first interview. Our townsman pre- 
sented his card, and the doorkeeper being an odd-fellow, admitted him 
forthwith, leaving many eminent men of ' high degree ' to bide their time. 
President Cleveland is an odd-fellow of high standing and talked with 
Mr. Links at length on different matters." 

[7s it not humiliating, indeed ! that even at the White House 
and the different departments of the government at Washington, fvJl- 
fledged American citizens must stand aside and loait till the secret 
obligations and interests of a secret Mormon government and its sub- 
jects thus held supreme, are first attended to ?^ 

* * 

* 

" I would give up my life, and that alone for God's sake : 
for to wliat purpose is it to live among a people insensible of 
their calamities, and where there is no notion remaining of any 
remedy for the miseries that are upon them ? for when you are 
seized upon, you bear it, when beaten you are silent, and when 
the people are murdered, nobody dares so much as send out a 
groan openly. Oh, bitter tyranny that we are under ! But why 
do I complain of the tyrants ? Was it not you, and your suffer- 
ance of them, that have nourished them ? Was it not you that 
overlooked those that first got together, for they were then but 
a few, and by your silence made them grow to be many, and by 
conniving at them when they took power in effect armed them 
against yourselves ? You ought to have then prevented their 
first attempts, when they fell to reproaching your relations, but 
by neglecting that care in time you have encouraged these 
wretches to plunder men. When houses were pillaged, nobody 
said a word, which was the occasion why they carried off the 
owners of those houses, and when they were drawn through 
the midst of the city nobody came to their assistance. They 
then proceeded to put those whom you have betrayed into their 
hands into bonds. I do not say how many and of what char- 
acters those men were whom they thus served, but certainly 
they were accused by none [but themselves] and condemned 
by none [but themselves] and since nobody succored them 
when they were in bonds, the consequence was that you 
saw the same persons slain. . . We have seen this also, so 
that still the best of the herd of brute animals, as it were, 
have been still led to be sacrificed, when yet nobody said one 



i 



The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 599 

word, or moved liis right hand for their preservation. Will you 
bear, therefore, will j'ou bear to see your sanctuary [o/" eqiial 
justice] trampled on ? and will you lay steps for these profane 
wretches, upon which they may mount to higher degrees of 
insolence ? Will you not pluck them down from their exulta- 
tion ? Oh, wretched creatures ! Will not you rise up and turn 
upon those that strike you ? which you may observe in wild 
beasts themselves, that they will avenge themselves on those 
that strike them. Will you not call to mind, every one of 
you, the calamities you yourselves have suffered ? nor lay be- 
fore your eyes what afflictions you yourselves have undergone ? 
and will not such things sharpen your souls to revenge ? Is, 
therefore, that most honorable and most natural of our passions 
utterly lost, I mean, the desire of liberty ? Truly we are in 
love with slavery and in love with those that lord it over us, as 
if we had received that principle of subjection from our ances- 
tors ; yet did they undergo many and great wars for the sake 

of liberty ! But perhaps many of you are affrightened at 

their multitude and at their audaciousness, as well as at the 
advantage they have over us in their being higher in place than 
we are ; for these circumstances, as they have been occasioned 
by your negligence, so will they become still greater by being 
still longer neglected, for their multitude is every day aug- 
mented hy everg vile mans joining those that are like to themselves 
and their audaciousness is therefore inflamed because they meet 
with no obstructions to their designs .... but be assured of this 
that if we get up and fight them they will be made tamer .... 
perhaps also God himself, who hath been affronted by them, 
will make what they throw at us return against themselves, 
and these impious wretches will be killed by their own darts, 
let us but make our appearance before them [with but our 
votes] and they will come to nothing. However, it is a right 
thing, if there should be any danger in the attempt, to die be- 
fore these holy gates, and to spend our very lives, if not for the 
sake of our children and wives, yet for God's sake and for the 
sake of his sanctuary of liberty ! I Avill assist you both with 
my counsel and with my hand, nor shall any sagacity of ours 
be wanting for your support, nor shall 3'ou see that I will be 
sparing with my body neither." 



600 The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 



The Stoby of Morgan. 

Thurlow Weed's account of the famous murder. 

A statement dictated two months before bis death. 
The following letter, dictated by the late Thurlow Weed but a short 
time before his death, contains his sworn statement of his knowledge con- 
cerning the abduction and alleged murder of William Morgan, and forms 
a most interesting chapter in relation to the sensational events which in 
their time caused so great a social and jjolitical convulsion: 

New York, Sept. 9th, 1882. 

Dear Sir: — I have delayed the answer to your letter inviting me to 
attend the unveiling of the monument to Captain William Morgan in the 
hope that I should be able to be present on that occasion. 

Impaired vision, added to other infirmities, prevents my going far 
from home. The occasion is one that recalls an event of startling interest, 
arousing deep popular feehng, first at Batavia, Le Eoy, Canandaigua and 
Bochester, then pervading our own and other States. After reading the 
proceedings of a meeting at Batavia, with the Hon. Da\id E. Evans as 
presiding ofiicer, I wrote a six hue paragraph for the Eochester Telegraph, 
in which I stated that a citizen of Batavia had been spirited away from his 
home and family and that, after a mysterious absence of several days, a 
village meeting had been held and a committee of citizens appointed to in- 
vestigate the matter; adding that, as it was known that Freemasons were 
concerned in this abduction, it behooved the fraternity, whose good name 
was suffering, to take the laboring oar in restoring the lost man to his 
liberty. That paragraph brought dozens of our most influential citizens, 
greatly excited, to the office, stopping the paper and ordering the discon- 
tinuance of their advertisements. I inquired of my partner, Robert Martin, 
what I had done to exasperate so many of our friends. He brought me a 
book and directed my attention to an obligation invoking strict penalties 
as a punishment for disclosing the secrets of Masons, inquiring what I 
thought of a man who, after taking such an obhgation, violated it V I re- 
plied that I did not know any jiunishment too severe for such a perjurer. 
The discontinuance of the paper embraced so large a number of its patrons 
I saw that my brief and, as I supposed, very harmless paragraph would 
ruin the establishment. Unwilhng that my partner should suff"er, I 
promptly withdrew; lea^nng the establishment in the hands of Mr. Martin. 
The paper was doing well, and until that paragraph appeared my business 
future was all I could desire. 

At that time an editor was wanted at Utica, where I had formerly 
worked, and where I had many friends, but my offer to go there was de. 
chned. I was equally unfortunate in my application for editorial employ- 
ment at Troy. The objection in both cases was that I had been too busy 
in getting up an excitement about Morgan. 

Meantime the mystery deejiened, and pubhc meetings were held in 
several villages, Rochester included. In the meeting at Rochester it was 



The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 601 

assumed that all good citizens would unite in an effort to vindicate the 
law. A committee was appointed consisting of seven, three of Avhom were 
Masons. It was soon discovered that the three Masons went from the 
committee to the lodge-rooms. It was .subsequently ascertained that two 
of these gentlemen were concerned in the abduction, and that Morgan had 
been committed to the jail in Canandaigua on a false charge of larceny, 
and that he had been carried from thence secretly by night to Fort Niagara. 
The committee encountered an obstacle in obtaining indictments in five of 
the six counties where indictments were needed. The sheriffs who sum- 
moned the gi-and juries were Freemasons. In four coianties no indict- 
ments could be obtained. In Ontario, however, the district attorney, 
Bowen WTiiting, and the shei-iff, Joseph Garhnghouse, though Masons, re- 
garded their obligation to the laws of the State paramount. Sheriff Gar- 
linghouse and District Attorney Whiting discharged their duties indepen- 
dently and honestly. As the investigation proceeded the evidence in- 
creased that Morgan had been unlawfully confined in the Canandaigua 
jail and secretly conveyed to Fort Niagara, where he was confined in the 
magazine. There was every reason to believe that he was taken from the 
magazine and drowned in Lake Ontario. This, however, was boldly and 
persistently denied — denials accomj^anied by solemn assurances that Mor- 
gan had been seen alive in several places, divided the pubhc sentiment. 
At town meetings, several months after Morgan's disappearance, the 
question was taken into jjolitics. A large number of zealous anti-Masons 
determined to make it a jioUtical issue. Solomon Southwick was nominated 
at Le Hoy for governor. Our committee firmly resisted all such efforts, 
urging all who were connected with us in an effort to vindicate the law to 
vote for the candidates of the party with which they had been previously 
connected. We endeavored to induce the whig State convention to nomi- 
nate Francis Granger, but, failing in that, we gave our support to Judge 
Smith Thompson. Afterwards, at a village election in Rochester, Dr. F. 
F. Backus, who had been treasurer by an unanimous vote of the electors 
from the time the village charter had been obtained, was again the candi- 
date of both parties. No whisper of opposition was heard before the elec- 
tion, or at the poUs, but when the votes were canvassed a majority appear- 
ed in favor of Dr. John B. Elwood. Dr Backus was an active and in- 
fluential member of the Morgan investigating committee. That astounding 
result produced an instantaneous change. 

PoHtical anti-Masonry from that moment and for that reason became 
an element in our elections. It was alleged and extensively believed that 
the " Morgan committee," to gratify personal aspirations, went voluntarily 
into politics. Those allegations were as untruthful as they were unjust. 
It was not until Ave ascertained that the fraternity, by a secret movement, 
was strong enough to defeat the candidate of both pohtical jjarties, that 
we consented to join issue with them i)ohtically. 

In the autumn of 1827, the discovery of the body of an unknown man 
on the shore of Lake Ontario, near the mouth of Oak Orchard Creek, gave 



602 The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 

a new and absorbing aspect to the question. The description of that body 
as published by the coroner who held an inquest over it, induced the be- 
lief that it was the body of William Morgan. Our committee decided to 
hold another inquest. Impressed with the importance and responsibility 
of the question I gave pubhc notice of our intention, and personally invit- 
ed several citizens who had known Morgan to be present. One of our 
committee went to Batavia to secure the attendance of Mrs. Morgan and 
as many others who knew him to attend. The body had been interred 
where it was found. The rude coffin was oj^ened in the presence of 
between forty and fifty persons. When it was reached and before remov- 
ing the lid, I received from Mrs. Morgan, and others who knew him well, 
descriptions of his person. Mrs. Morgan described the color of his hair, 
a scar upon his foot, and that his teeth were double all round. Dr. Strong 
confirmed Mrs. Morgan's statement about double teeth, one of which he 
had extracted, while another was broken, indicating the position of the 
extracted and broken teeth. When the coffin was opened the body dis- 
closed the pecialiarities described by Mrs. Morgan aud Dr. Strong. 

This second inquest and the examinations of the body proceeded in 
open day and in the presence of Masons and anti-Masons, not one of whom 
dissented from the coroner's jury, by which the body was unanimously 
declared to be that of William Morgan. Mrs. Morgan, in her testimony, 
failed to recognize the clothes. The body was taken to Bata^ia, where it 
was re-interred, no one as yet expressing any doubt of its identity. 

Subsequently, however, we were surprised by a statement that the 
body supposed to be that of Morgan was alleged to be the body of Timothy 
Monroe, who had been drowned in the Niagara river several weeks before 
holding the first inquest. This awakened general and intense feehng. 
Notice was given that a third inquest would be held at Batavia, where the 
widow and son of Timothy Monroe appeared as witnesses. Mrs. Monroe 
swore to a body essentially different from that found at Oak Orchard creek. 
Her husband, she said, had black hair that had been recently cut and 
stood erect. Her testimony made her husband from three to four inches 
taller than that of the body in question. She testified that her husband 
had double teeth all round and described an extracted tooth from the 
wrong jaw and knew nothing at all of the broken tooth. The hair upon 
the head of the drowned man was long, silky and of a chestnut color, 
while that of Monroe, according to the testimony erf Mrs. Monroe and her 
son, Avas short, black and close cut. While Mrs. Monroe failed in des- 
cribing the body, her description of the clothing was minutely accurate. 
The heel of his stocking was described as having been darned with yarn 
different in color. Her cross-examination was very rigid and her answers 
throughout were found to be correct. The clothing thus described had 
been in possession of the coroner, who testified that it had been seen either 
by Mrs. Monroe or any stranger from whom she could have obtained in- 
formation. On the other hand, Mrs. Morgan's description of the body, 



The Practical Workikgs of Masonry, eic. 603 

before she had seen it, was quite as satisfactoiy as Mrs. Monroe's descrip- 
tion of the clothes. 

Our committee took no part in the third inquest, and the body, as is 
known, was declared to be that of Timothy Mom*oe. Simultaneously an 
accident occm-red showing the -vandictive si^iiit of our opponents. On the 
evening of the day that the body iuten-ed at Batavia was declared by a 
third inquest to be that of Timothy Moni-oe, I went into the billiard room 
of the Eagle hotel to see a friend from Clarkson. When leaving the room, 
Ebenezer Giiffin, Esq., a j^rominent lawyer employed as counsel for 
Masons, said, "Well, Weed, what will you do for a Morgan now ?" To 
which I replied, "That is a good enough Morgan for us till you bring 
back the one you carried off." On the following morning the Daily Ad- 
vei'tiser, a Masonic organ, contained a paragraph charging me with having 
boastingly said that the body in question "was a good enough Morgan 
until after the election." That perversion went the rounds of the Masonic 
and democratic j^ress, awakening much jjopular indignation and subjecting 
me to denunciations in speeches and resolutions at political meetings and 
conventions. Explanations were disi'egarded ; the maxim that " Falsehood 
wiU travel miles while tnith is drawing on its boots " was then verified. I 
suffered obloquy and reproach from that wicked perversion for nearly half 
a century. Indeed, there is reason to believe that even now, where I am 
personally unknown, generations are gi'owing up believing that I mutilated 
a dead body for political effect, and, when exposed, boasted that it was a 
good enough Morgan until after the election. Forty years afterwards the 
editor of the jDajjer who originated that calumny, by a series of jjecuniary 
reverses, was comi^elled to apply to me for assistance. I avenged the 
great wrong he had done me by obtaining for him a situation in the custom 
house. 

This served to extend and intensify the "excitement." It was every- 
where charged and widely believed that I had mutilated the body in 
question for the purpose ot making it resemble that of Captain WilHam 
Morgan. I encountered prejudices thus created both in Paris and Loudon 
20 years afterwards. 

Our investigations were embarrassed and protracted by the absenc 
and concealment of important witnesses. One of these witnesses was ua 
invalid soldier who had the care of Morgan while confined in the magazine 
at Fort Niagara, but he disapi)eared, and all efforts to find him were un- 
availing for more than a year. I finally traced him (Elisha Adams) to 
Brookfield, a mountain town in Vermont. We reached the log house of 
Adams' brother-in-law, with whom he was hiding, between 12 and 1 o'clock 
at night. Our rap was resijonded to by the owner, to whom, on ojjening 
the door the sheriff introduced me, directly after which, and before any- 
thing more had been said, we heard a voice from the second floor of the cabin 
saying, " I am ready and have been expecting yon all winter. " Immediately 
afterwards the old man came down the ladder, and in 10 minutes we de- 
parted on our return. 



60-4 The Practical Workings of Masonry, etc. 



While waiting for breakfast at the foot of the mountain several men 
dropped into the bar-room where we were sitting. When called to break- 
fast, the landlady, carefully closing the door, remarked that her husband 
had sent around for Masons, some of whom had ah-eady appeared, but 
that we need not fear them for she had sent her daughter to inform other 
villagers what was going ou, and that before we had done breakfast there 
would be twice as many anti-Masons m attendance. Eetuming to the 
bar-room we found' that she had done her work thoroughly. Fifteen or 
twenty men were in the bar-room glaring at each other and at Adams ; but 
nothing was said and we Avere driven off unmolested. On our way back, 
Adam, at different times, stated that hearing a noise in the magazine he 
reported it to Mr. Edward Giddins, keeper of the fort, who told him that 
a stranger was lodged there who in a day or two would be taken to his 
friends in Canada, but nothing must be said about it. He then from time 
to time carried food to the person. Soon afterwards, near midnight, he 
was told to have a boat in readiness for the pui-pose of taking away the 
man in the magazine. Several gentlemen arrived in a carriage, by whom 
the man was taken from the magazine and escorted to the boat. Adams 
was told to remain on the dock until the boat should return, and that if in 
the meantime an alarm should be given he was to show a signal to warn 
the boat away. As nothing of the kind occurred the boat returned quietly, 
and of the six who left in the boat only five returned, he supposed that 
one had gone to his friends in Canada. 

Adams was wanted as a Avitness iu trials then pending in Canadaigua. 
We reached that place iu the afternoon of the day the court convened. 
Three men were on trial for abducting Morgan. Tlie testimony of Adams 
was essential to complete the link. On being called to the stand he denied 
all knowledge bearing upon the question. He resided, he said, at the time 
specified, in the fort, but knew of no man being confined in the magazine; 
and knew nothing of men coming there at night in a carriage, and knew 
nothing of a man being taken from there in a boat. His denials covering 
the whole ground were expHcit. That, for the time being, ended the 
matter. When the court adjourned I walked across the square with Judge 
Howell, who presided, and who remarked to me that I had made a long 
journey for nothing, my witness, Adams, being ignorant of the Avhole 
affair. General Vincent Mathews, of Kochester, who was walking on the 
other side of the judge, replied with much feeling, "that the old rascal 
had not uttered a word of truth while he was on the stand." 

General Mathews was the leading counsel for the kidnappers, but re- 
fused to be a party in tampering with witnesses. On our return to Rochester 
the witness Adams was in an extra stage with his Masonic friends. As 
there was no longer any need of hiding he was on his way to Niagara. In 
passing the Mansion House, Rochester, Adams, who was standing in the 
doorway, asked me to stop, saying he wanted to explain his testimony. 
The lawyers, he said, informed him that if he told what he knew about 
the magazine and the boat, it would be a confession that would send him 



The Puactical Workings of Masonry, etc. 605 

to state's i)rison. They also tol J him that the law did not compel a -wit- 
ness to criminate himself ; and, to avoid punishment, he must deny the 
whole story. 

In 1831, after my removal from Rochester to Albany, a libel suit was 
commenced against me by General Gould, of Rochester. It was tried at 
Albany, Judge James Yanderjioel i)residiug. The libel charged General 
Gould with giving money he received from the Royal Arch Grand Chapter 
to enable Burrage Smith and John Whitney to escape from justice. Gerrit 
L. Dox, treasurer of the Grand Chapter, and John Whitney, one of the 
recipients of the money, were in court to establish the truth of the libeL 
Mr. Dox testified that a " charity fund " had been entrusted to General 
Gould. John Whitney was called to i^rove that he received jiart of the 
fund, with which, in comisauy Avith Burrage Smith, he left Rochester, and 
was absent nearly a year. General Goulds counsel objected to witness' 
testimony until it had been shown that General Gould knew that the 
money furnished was to enable Smith and Whitney to escape from justice. 
The court sustained this objection, and Whitney's testimony was excluded. 
As it was impossible to prove what was only known to General Gould 
himself, the trial ended abruptly. Judge Vanderpoel, in charging the 
jury, dwelt at length upon the licentiousness of the press, and called upon 
the jury to give exemijlary damages to the injured and innocent plaintiff. 
The jury, thus instructed, but with evident reluctance, found a verdict of 
$400 dollars against me. My offense consisted in asserting a fact, the 
exact truth of which would have been established if the testimony had not 
been ruled out by a monstrous jjerversion of justice. 

Colonel Simeon B. Jewett, of Clarkson ; Major Samuel Barton, of 
XiCwiston, and John Whitney, of Rochester, passed that evening at my 
house. Jewett was i^repared to testify that he furnished a carriage for 
those who were conveying Morgan secretly from Canadaigua to Niagara. 
John Whitney was one of the party. Major Barton would have testified 
that he furnished the carriage which conveyed the party from Lewiston to 
Fort Niagara. John Whitney being one of the party. Whitney would 
have sworn that Gould sujiijlied money to enable him to " escape from 
justice." In the course of the evening, the Morgan affair being the ininci- 
pal topic of conversation, Colonel Jewett turned to Whitney with emphasis 
and said, "John, what if you make a clean breast of it?" Whitney 
looked inquiringly at Barton, who added, "Go ahead." 

Whitney then related in detail the history of Morgan's abduction and 
fate. The idea of suppressing Morgan's intended exj^osure of the secrets 
of Masonry was first suggested by a man by the name of Johns. It was 
discussed in lodges at Batavia, Le Roy and Rochester. Johns suggested 
that Morgan should be separated from Miller and placed on a farm in Canada 
West. For this purpose he was taken to Niagara and placed in the maga- 
zine of the fort until arrangements for settling him in Canada were com- 



606 The Practical AVorkings of Masonry, etc. 

pleted, but the Canadian Masons disappointed them. After several meet- 
ings of the lodge in Canada, opposite Fort Niagara, a refusal to have 
anything to do with Morgan left his "kidnappers" greatly perplexed. 
Opi^ortunately a Koyal Arch Chapter was installed at Lewiston, The 
occasion brought a large number of enthusiastic Masons together. "After 
labor," in Masonic language, they "retired to refreshment." Under the 
exhiloration of champagne and other viands the Chaplain (the Eev. F. 
H. Cummiags, of Rochester) was called on for a toast. He responded 
with peculiar emphasis and in the language of their ritual : " The enemies 
of our order — may they find a grave six feet deej), six feet long, and six 
feet due east and west." Immediately after that toast, which was received 
with great enthusiasm. Colonel William King, an officer of our war of 
1812, and then a member of assembly from Niagara county, called Whit- 
ney of Rochester, Howard of Buifalo, Chubbuck of Lewiston, and Garside 
of Canada, out of the room and into a carriage furnished by Major Barton. 
They were driven to Fort Niagara, repaired to the magazine and informed 
Morgan that the arrangements for sending him to Canada were completed 
and that his family would soon follow him. Morgan received the inform- 
ation cheerfully and walked with supposed friends to the boat, which was 
rowed to the mouth of the river, where a rope was wound around his 
body, to each end of which was attached a sinker. Morgan was then 
thrown overboard. He grasped the gunwale of the boat convulsively. 
Garside, in forcing Morgan to relinquish his hold, was severely bitten. 

Whitney, in concluding his narrative, said he was now relieved from 
a heavy load ; that for four years he had not heard the window rustle or 
any other noise at night without thinking the sheriff was after him. 
Colonel Jewett, looking fixedly at Whitney, said : "Weed can hang you 
now." "But he won't," was Whitney's prompt reply. Of course, asecret 
thus confided to me was inviolably kept, and twenty years after, while 
attending a national rej^ubhcan convention at Chicago, John T\Tiitney, 
•who then resided there, called to say he wanted me to wiite out what 
he once told me about Morgan's fate, to be signed by him in the pres- 
ence of witnesses, to be sealed up and published after his death. I 
promised to do so before leaving Chicago. There was no leisure, how- 
ever, during the sitting of the convention ; and even before its final 
adjournment, forgetting Avhat I had told Whitney, I hurried to Iowa, 
returnmg by way of Siiringfield to visit Mr. Lincoln. In the excitement 
of the canvass which followed, and the secession of the Southern States 
upon Mr. Lincoln's election, I neglected the important duty of securing 
the confession Whitney was so anxious to make. In 1861 I went to Europe 
and while in London wrote a letter to Wliitney asking him to get Alex. 
B. Wilhams, then a resident of Chicago, to do what I had so unjjar- 
donably neglected. That letter reached Chicago one week after Whit- 
ney's death, closing the last and only chance for the revelation of that im- 
portant event. 



The Practical Workings op Masonry, etc. 607 

I now look back through an interval of fifty-six years, with a conscious 
sense of having been governeil through the " auti-masouie excitement" by 
a sincere desire, first, to vindicate the violated laws of my countiy, and 
next, to arrest the groat jiower and dangerous influences of *' secret 
societies." We labored imder serious disadvantages. The people were 
unAvilhng to believe that an institution so ancient, to which many of our 
best and most distinguished men belonged, was cajjable of not only vio- 
lating the laws, but of sustaining and 2ii'otecting offending men of the 
order. A vast majority of the American people beheved that Morgan was 
concealed by our committee for political effect. While we were being 
fiercely denounced as incendiary spirits, Judge Enos T. Trooji, in cliarg- 
ing the grand jury at Canadaigua, sjioke of anti-masonry as a "blessed 
spirit" which he hoped "would not rest until every man implicated in 
the abduction of Morgan was tried, couAacted and ijunished." 

City and County ) 
of New York. [ " 

Thurlow Weed, being duly sworn, says that the foregoing statements 
are true. Thuklow Weed. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 28th day of September, 1882. 

Spencer C. Doty, 

Notary Public, 

[THE END.] 



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